Meeting September 7, 2023

[Jeff Scheel]

All,

Our next meeting will be Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 12:00 UTC.  Local times:

• 8 PM China
• 5:30 PM India Standard Time
• 2 PM Central European Time
• 8 AM Eastern U.S.
• 5 AM Pacific U.S.

Here's the meeting link: 
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=MzV2cDA2YW5wM21ra2YwbDkyNXVoOWdjbzlfMjAyMzA5MDdUMTIwMDAwWiB0ZWNoLm1lZXRpbmdzQHJpc2N2Lm9yZw&ctz=UTC 

The agenda will involve one new topic:

1. Alibaba DevBoards Overview (David Chen)
2. Discussion about next programs

Standard topics will be addressed as time permits:

1. Program updates from RISC-V
2. Board and Project updates
3. Review of Google Sites updates and drafts (Google Sites)
4. What's cool? (time permitting)
   

Any topics, updates, or information can as always either be raised at the beginning of the meeting or by adding it to our agenda document, Dev Board Group Minutes.
-Jeff

P.S. Sorry for the late notice!

--

Jeff Scheel (he/him/his)

Director of Technical Programs, RISC-V Foundation

[Jeff Scheel]

Thanks to everyone who joined the meeting and contributed to the discussion!

Per convention, the official updates are in the Meeting Document and I'm attaching a copy here.  Please don't hesitate to question, correct, extend the information in either the document of this email.

Attendees: Jeff, Daniel, Heinrich, David, YuBo, Prasanna,James, Axel, Peter, Victor Lu (Individual)

Board Updates:

• Alibaba (David Chen)

• Slides

• Alibaba would like to donate boards.  This should start with submission of the form on the RISC-V Developer Board Details page (link).  See link in “If you are a RISC-V member and have a board for the program, complete our RISC-V Developer Boards Partnership form to start the ball rolling.” text.  3 boards:

• Lichee Pi4A has 4x C910 core with Vector 0.7 would be targeted toward Android development (see blog)

• What is the status of patches to upstream kernel?

• Any outlook for Imagination drive open source?

• Kanaan K230 has 2x C908 with Vector 1.0 on one core, other core is slower

• How much memory?

• Huashan 2x C906, 4 GB memory, target multi-media processing (IoT device)

• TWAI or CAN bus support?

• Would like to donate boards and run projects

• Will discuss with Jeff how to build a DevBoard program.  Idea is to invite 3-5 KOLs or senior developers to test, evaluate and develop some demos on these boards

• StarFive

• Upstream kernel now supports Nvme and USB on VisionFive V2

Program Updates:

• Debian

• Debian riscv64 official port has finished ~92%

• Oreboot

• Still working on unaligned access and where to handle

• RISC-V

• August status:

• 17 participants

• VisionFive V2

• Still need to find projects for remaining 8 boards

• Unmatched

• The inventory has been shipped.  2 of the 4 projects have received their boards.

• Rafael has proposed purchasing and managing distribution of some boards in Brazil

• Will likely start with VisionFive V2s

• 2 ROMA laptops received

• Jeff will be evaluating before more shipment

• No updates on Pioneer Boards/Milk-V boxes

What’s cool?:

• https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/risc-v-poll-results-and-a-new-emulator?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1063960&post_id=135635850&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email - A poll about RISC-V from The Chip Letter

• https://liliputing.com/lichee-console-4a-is-a-mini-laptop-with-a-risc-v-processor-and-7-inch-display/ - Lichee Console 4A (mini-laptop) with 7” display

• https://www.servethehome.com/ventana-veyron-v1-risc-v-data-center-processor-hot-chips-2023/ - Ventana presentation from HotChips

• https://amp-scmp-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3232686/chinas-top-chip-designers-form-risc-v-patent-alliance-promote-semiconductor-self-sufficiency?amp_js_v=0.1 - China forms patent alliance to promote RISC-V

• https://hackaday.com/2023/08/27/linux-on-a-commodore-64/ - RISC-V32 processor emulates Commodore computer running Linux

• Many RISC-V (co-)platforms are now AMP;  https://www.openampproject.org/ 

• Milk-V boards are now available internationally https://arace.tech/collections/milk-v 

• Daniel bought a car media player based on the Allwinner (sunxi) D1s / F133-B, can run own code on it https://mastodon.social/@CyReVolt/111023902588872016 

Miscellaneous notes:

• Future topic to be led by Jeff with discussion from Linux vendors (Heinrich, Darren, Weifu, and others) and Alibaba (David and James): how can we help vendors like Alibaba and others increase adoption of their patches upstream?

Thanks again!

-Jeff

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Jeff Scheel (he/him/his)

Director of Technical Programs, RISC-V Foundation