There are many SBCs based on ARM and other architectures, on the other hand, the young RISC-V architecture does not yet have as much repertoire for amateurs and developers who need a chip-based board with this ISA for their work. Fortunately, some alternatives are already emerging such as Seeed, SiFive, etc., or this other BeagleBoard that we present today. It's called BeagleV and it's the first affordable SBC board you'll be able to own soon.
This BeagleV board allows to use for developments electronic thanks to its GPIO, as is also the case with Raspberry Pi. In addition, you can use several operating systems to run on it, such as Linux. In addition, it has interesting features for those looking to work with deep-learning and AI, something that the Pi does not have ...
This board has been developed by BeagleBoard in collaboration with Seeed Studio and StarFive Technology, the latter in charge of creating the SoC that mounts this cheap board and that includes RISC-V IP cores from the Californian SiFive.
Characteristics of the BeagleV
If you are interested in knowing all the technical characteristics of the BeagleV board, here you have them detailed:
- StarFive JH7100 SoC:
- SiFive U74 DualCore processor with 2MB of L2 @ 1.5Ghz.
- Tensilica-VP6 DSP for Computer Vision
- NVIDIA NVDLA Engine Deep Learning Accelerator (2048 MACs @ 800Mhz) 3.5T
- 1024T Neural Network Engine (500 MACs @ 1Mhz)
- 4-8 GB LPDDR4 RAM (2x 4GB)
- Connectivity and ports:
- 1x HDMI (1080px @ 30FPS)
- 4x USB 3.0 type A
- 5 WiFi
- Bluetooth 4.2
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
- 3.5mm audio jack
- MicroSD card slot
- 1x USB-C for power (5v / 3A)
- 40-pin GPIO (SDIO, Audio, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM ...)
- 2x MIPI-CSI
- 1x MIPI-IDS
- Reset and On / Off button.
- Operating System: FreeRTOS and Linux (installed on the microSD)
Price and where to buy
If you are interested in this BeagleV plate, you should know that a first batch of plates will arrive that will be delivered at no cost to some lucky developers let them be selected. To be one of them, you can fill in this online form and wait to see if you can qualify for one of the 300 that will be distributed. This first batch will be delivered there in March or April of this 2021, and will be manufactured using chips created in foundries using MPW wafers.
As for the mass sale for all, it will arrive at the end of 2021, about the month of september. At that time, those who have not, can buy this board for $ 149 for the configuration with 8GB of RAM and for $ 120 for those who prefer a cheaper configuration with 4GB of RAM.
More information - beagelv