Linux 5.19 Adding Support For The PolarBerry RISC-V FPGA Board

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 5.19 Adding Support For The PolarBerry RISC-V FPGA Board

A few days ago the RISC-V pull request landed in Linux 5.19 with support for RISC-V 32-bit (RV32) binaries on RV64, enabling the new Svpbmt extension, and other improvements. On Friday a secondary set of RISC-V changes were sent in for Linux 5.19 that includes adding the DeviceTree files for another new RISC-V board...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.19-PolarBerry-RISC-V

[microcode]

It would be nice, for once, if they would just sell the SoM and development carriers on the open market. I get that they are targeting the defense industry, but that doesn't mean they have to be "pricing on request" about everything.

[cb88]

It would be nice, for once, if they would just sell the SoM and development carriers on the open market. I get that they are targeting the defense industry, but that doesn't mean they have to be "pricing on request" about everything.

Appears to be $999 for board and $999 for the SoM.... so a non starter from most applications, everyone else is just going to get a DE10-Nano.

[tildearrow]

It would be nice, for once, if they would just sell the SoM and development carriers on the open market. I get that they are targeting the defense industry, but that doesn't mean they have to be "pricing on request" about everything.

Pricing on request:

1. "CALL"
2. *calls*
3. $1,000,000 per unit

I have learned to associate "call for a quote" with "way too expensive".

[microcode]

Appears to be $999 for board and $999 for the SoM.... so a non starter from most applications, everyone else is just going to get a DE10-Nano.

Guarantee you there's a market for it in experimental development (which turns into products!) even at that price.

[cb88]

Guarantee you there's a market for it in experimental development (which turns into products!) even at that price.

Sure, but unless the SoM price comes down its going to remain pretty niche. I mean we are talking about basically a Xilinx Zync competitor at non competitive prices... the DoD angle makes a lot of sense.

[DMJC]

DE10 nano only has 110K LEs, the Polarberry has 250K LEs, I want to know if they are equivalent units, and whether the Polarberry is capable of running MISTer/being upgraded to go beyond what the MISTer can do. I'm also curious why all the FPGAs are at 28nm (which is kind of crap) and don't seem to get new releases very often.

[Brane215]

DE10 nano only has 110K LEs, the Polarberry has 250K LEs, I want to know if they are equivalent units, and whether the Polarberry is capable of running MISTer/being upgraded to go beyond what the MISTer can do. I'm also curious why all the FPGAs are at 28nm (which is kind of crap) and don't seem to get new releases very often.

DE10 Nano is based on Cycleone V, which doesn't appear to have hardened CPU.
Polarfire SoC does have pretty capable 4+1 RISC-V core cluster.

WRT to aggressive geometries, take a look at the prices of Xilinx 7nm families.

FPGA is very bloaty by nature. Only 5% of the stuff implements functionality that does the actual job that is required.
ALl of the rest jist is just a supporting part ( switches, pathways etc).

Also, even basic logic concepts are VERY wasteful in FPGA. Basic logic element is LUT,, which is basically small RAM.
That's a LOT of circuitry to implement even simplest 4-input functions that couuld be done with perhaps 10-20 transistors.

This is the reason that the manufacturers are seeking to get most bang for the buck out of the process on most segments.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Pricing on request:

1. "CALL"
2. *calls*
3. $1,000,000 per unit

I have learned to associate "call for a quote" with "way too expensive".

Absolutely. Had this happen far too often myself. Whenever I see, "Call for price", "Price upon application", "Price on request" or similar, I know that it should be filed under the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" category.