[jackckang]

Your speculation is quite accurate...there will be FMC expansion cards specifically built for the HiFive Unleashed that will break out most of those peripherals you're talking about (PCIe, SATA, to name a few in particular). Unfortunately we weren't quite ready to announce those details today but will be making those updates ASAP.

The reason for the large RAMs and microSD card is specifically to help software developers. That's who the board is for until we can drive the cost down even further for even more folks.

-Jack Kang, SiFive

[aseipp]

Thanks for the confirmation! The microSD card's speed is my main complaint, relative to everything else. But I'm just complaining I guess -- because otherwise I think the board looks very good, without any expansions. :)

It seems every board always has a catch somewhere, but if an FMC expansion can work around this, that'd be excellent. I'm looking very forward to putting this machine through its paces once I get my hands on it!

[rwmj]

Without the expansion board you'd likely use iSCSI or NFS root for the OS. The SD card would only be used to boot.