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Something Retro & HPC-ish + RPI-CM3 under the hood

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Jornada+Linux Page Icon Posted 2022-03-16 5:34 PM
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stingraze - 2022-03-15 3:04 PM

Update 3/16/2022:

They now have a 64bit RISC-V version for sale.
https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01

Price: $239.00

Two colors of back shell, Retro Gray and Transparent Gray.

DevTerm Kit R-01

On that website it says about the cheap R1 model:
Quote
DevTerm R-01 is a highly experimental model and requires some experience with Linux system & FOSS. We strongly recommend all beginners to choose other models.

What do you think that means...? Will the OS not run on it?
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jorel101 Page Icon Posted 2022-03-16 5:49 PM
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I think it means there is not an out of the box solution and it will require tinkering. I saw on the forum some members want to try using arch linux on it.
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2022-03-17 8:08 AM
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Jornada+Linux - 2022-03-17 2:34 AM

Quote
stingraze - 2022-03-15 3:04 PM

Update 3/16/2022:

They now have a 64bit RISC-V version for sale.
https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-r01

Price: $239.00

Two colors of back shell, Retro Gray and Transparent Gray.

DevTerm Kit R-01

On that website it says about the cheap R1 model:
Quote
DevTerm R-01 is a highly experimental model and requires some experience with Linux system & FOSS. We strongly recommend all beginners to choose other models.

What do you think that means...? Will the OS not run on it?

Not sure, as it was just released and very few information is out there.

RISC-V does support Linux, and eventually open source community will surely port things like the display etc., I think.

I found this thread on reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RISCV/comments/tf1lkq/the_first_riscv_porta...

Update:
I found that hackster.io has this info.

"There's no graphics processor, though video output is possible via software rendering, and 1GB of DDR3 memory."

(Found through Grow My Search, my search engine with crawler)

Edited by stingraze 2022-03-17 8:16 AM
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Jornada+Linux Page Icon Posted 2022-03-17 11:59 AM
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stingraze - 2022-03-16 9:08 AM
[...]
"There's no graphics processor, though video output is possible via software rendering, and 1GB of DDR3 memory."

Hmmmm. Very vague. Looks to me that they're waiting for the community to make an OS for it. Meanwhile, the photo on their website misleadingly shows the R-01 unit with a Desktop Enviroment (DE) running (CDE if I'm not mistaken). However, I highly doubt this thing runs anything yet at all, let alone a DE. I can't find any info on the DevTerm on their website's FAQ. And I can't find any useful info on an OS for this R-01 model. This topic seems to imply that there's no OS for the R-01 yet.

In this topic on the ClockworkPi forum about the DevTerm a user named adcockm on March 10 2022 summarized the problems in a very good way in my opinion:

Quote
[...]
I have mixed feelings about ClockworkPi. I appreciate their hardware designs, and have not felt let down in terms of hardware for both the Gameshell and the DevTerm. The software they provide is minimal and barely functional though, and although it has been enough to bootstrap enthusiastic people in the community to contribute something more stable/useful, it’s not really what is advertised on their website. I think a lot of the issues people complain about here are the result of poor communication. What is being offered is poorly communicated on the website – it would be more honest to say these are hardware designs, in kit form (and the build process is quite beautiful!), with basic software that will require effort and customization from their users to actually be useful and have a purpose. It’s kind of like a model kit, but instead of painting the model afterward, there is software creation, customization, and reverse engineering required.

[...]
having someone like that who can keep up with and respond to issues publicly goes a long way to making customers feel like they are being heard. For DevTerm, @AlexDuan stepped into that role for a bit, and it he helpful to keep people apprised of the shipping issues, but I got the feeling he was doing that in his spare time, and it might have gotten to be too overwhelming.

This also clears up why they are discussing "Duan Linux" or something like that. It appears a version of Linux or ClockworkOS for the DevTerm, made by Alex Duan, not by the ClockworkPi company.

When ClockworkPi has solved the issue of having an operating system then I might consider buying one. I don't understand why some Youtubers are so positive about the A06 DevTerm version that they got for free. The A06 last even shorter on the batteries than the A04.

Edited by Jornada+Linux 2022-03-17 12:01 PM
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2022-03-18 5:16 AM
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RISC-V is interesting that it is opensource ISA, but I am still not convinced enough that it will beat ARM in the near term. Much more references, software libraries, products, etc.

I do wonder though, how much less power it consumes compared to ARM processors.

-stingraze
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Jornada+Linux Page Icon Posted 2022-03-18 12:19 PM
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stingraze - 2022-03-17 6:16 AM
[...]
I do wonder though, how much less power it consumes compared to ARM processors.

That's why I would be interested in a DevTerm R-01. Portable devices should last a long time on batteries. However, since the RISC-V platform probably has no Linux distribution - or any operating system - for it I wouldn't buy it. The guys from ClockworkPi should be more clear about this. And NOT show that thing running an (imaginary, impossible) OS and GUI.
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2022-03-21 1:55 AM
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true, true...
They do mislead some people.

This post is from 2020, but interesting nevertheless.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/new-risc-v-cpu-claims-record...

Coremark score of Micro Magic RISC-V @ 3GHz: 117,143
Coremark score of M1 Mac Mini, 8 Threads: 10,947

This score difference is pretty crazy.

Some interesting facts:
"Micro Magic was originally founded in 1995 and was purchased by Juniper Networks for $260 million. In 2004, it was reborn under its original name by the original founders—Mark Santoro and Lee Tavrow, who originally worked at Sun and led the team that developed the 300MHz SPARC microprocessor."



Edited by stingraze 2022-03-21 1:56 AM
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