[HN Gopher] A tiny RISC-V MCU board selling for $3
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A tiny RISC-V MCU board selling for $3
Author : childintime
Score : 92 points
Date : 2020-01-02 18:02 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnx-software.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnx-software.com)
| rs23296008n1 wrote:
| Black on green silk screen text is an unlikely choice. Still
| early days however so probably fixed in next revision.
| spurdoman77 wrote:
| These boards are very cool, and I would happily play with them if
| I had time. However one thing is a bit mystery to me, what are
| the use cases more professionally? Obviously there must be lots
| of non-hobbyist demand for boards like this.
| nrp wrote:
| Typically, boards like this would only be used for prototyping.
| It's a dead simple system and there is basically nothing of
| value in the board itself for production use. Any design using
| the same microcontroller would just incorporate it directly
| rather than integrating an extra board. That differs from more
| complex boards like an RPi Compute Module or an RF module. On
| those, you might take advantage of the existing high-layer-
| count board attached to a simpler, low-layer-count board, avoid
| needing to redesign systems that have signal integrity or RF
| challenges, or utilize existing certifications around
| emissions.
| penagwin wrote:
| > or utilize existing certifications around emissions.
|
| This is one of the biggest reasons for an extra board for RF
| modules. RF is black magic where you REALLY need to know what
| you're doing to develop your own board, and if it's not in an
| already certified module then you have to have your product
| pass FCC certifications (costing a lot of money)
| katmannthree wrote:
| The boards are a great reference point for developing a product
| with a given component. Any time I make something with an MCU I
| pick up a couple of dev boards just like this to learn from.
| It's basically a ``known good'' configuration and really handy
| for prototyping and debugging hardware issues.
| exabrial wrote:
| We just had an article on HN yesterday saying there were no cheap
| RISC-V board available... and here we are!
| bonzini wrote:
| He was looking for microprocessors that support the privileged
| RISC-V specification, not microcontrollers.
| Gladdyu wrote:
| The issue was that there wasn't a cheap riscv board that
| supported the privileged section of the ISA (so you can run an
| OS on it). This, being a microcontroller, doesn't either.
| kken wrote:
| As already noted in the comments under the linked article: This
| device is currently seriously lacking software support, bordering
| on making it unusable.
|
| It's interesting to note that the company that developed the chip
| (Gigadevice) initially got big by copying microcontrollers by ST
| microelectronics. This went as far as copying the entire product
| portfolio including naming scheme and marketing strategy.
| (Personally I find this absolutely appalling)
|
| I guess not having to develop a software toolchain for their
| devices provided a huge benefit for them. Now that they have a
| device that cannot rely on external tools, things look a bit more
| difficult...
| kragen wrote:
| I'd been wondering if the GD32F107 was a clone of the
| STM32F107! Thank you for confirming that! But surely you can't
| honestly think that ST microcontrollers are a reasonable
| alternative for most electronics manufacturers? As far as I can
| tell, ST doesn't even offer datasheets in Chinese!
|
| I think RISC-V software support will probably take shape pretty
| quickly, in the next $smallinteger years.
|
| In terms of the ethics of cloning products from other
| companies, such as Linux, Chrome, Intel's 64-bit chips, and
| Google Search: do you want the future to be dominated by
| engineers who create new things, or by owners of government-
| granted monopolies like copyrights, patents, and RF spectrum?
| Bram Cohen and Richard Stallman, or the RIAA and Verizon?
| makomk wrote:
| ST's microcontrollers were really popular in Chinese-designed
| electronics before GigaDevices cloned them, and the STM32F103
| - which is the one they initially cloned - was especially so.
| Its popularity in China is almost certainly why they decided
| to clone it in the first place.
| agumonkey wrote:
| who knows, sometimes plagiarists start for the low effort and
| then start to make good work
| sschueller wrote:
| Isn't that how the world works?
|
| Hollywood copied Edison's patents which you could consider just
| as bad but it resulted in a lot of new tech which we would not
| have.
| bb88 wrote:
| The GD marketing materials say they support the standard RISCV
| tool chain.
|
| https://www.gigadevice.com/press-release/gigadevice-unveils-...
| ksangeelee wrote:
| For a microcontroller, the chip is better supported than I had
| expected. All peripherals are well documented with registers
| clearly defined, the headers all seem to be correct, and the
| documentation has been translated well enough.
|
| There are shortcomings, such as the USB example code in the SDK
| not building, but I'm grateful for the chance to hack on a
| RISC-V SoC for less than the price of a beer.
| leggomylibro wrote:
| It is interesting that they got their start that way - I've
| been wondering if the peripherals for SPI, USART, etc. work the
| same way in their RISC-V boards as they do on STM32/GD32 chips.
|
| If so, one side effect of their mimicry might be that their
| RISC-V MCUs are much easier to get started with than their
| competitors'. I don't know how similar the two lines are, but
| it sure would be nice if you could just swap arm-none-eabi-gcc
| for the appropriate 32-bit RISC-V toolchain. I've been meaning
| to get some of the $5 Longan Nano boards carried by Seeed
| Studios, but the holidays are always distracting.
| petra wrote:
| ' GigaDevice similarly claims "complete compatibility"
| between its new GD32V RISC-V microcontrollers and the classic
| GD32 series of MCUs based on Arm. '
|
| https://www.eetimes.com/gigadevice-intros-general-purpose-
| ri...
| leggomylibro wrote:
| Sweet!! Can't wait to try them as drop-in-place Cortex-M
| replacements.
| brianolson wrote:
| It's early in its life cycle and needs a JTAG interface to work
| with now, but it _could_ be a sweet little Arduino board.
| Comparable to the TeensyLC but $3 instead of $12. 3.3v 33mA
| 108Mhz 32k RAM 128k flash.
| makomk wrote:
| It's probably more closely comparable to the STM32F103-based
| boards which cost about the same amount as it but have better
| software support. This is sort of a derivative of a clone of
| that exact microcontrller.
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