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by pabs3 1573 days ago
SiFive are the closest to that.
1 comments
octoberfranklin 1573 days ago
Which is what is so depressing.

They're the "closest", but not remotely close.

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pabs3 1572 days ago
They have more RAM than my current desktop, so probably they are good enough for many people :)
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octoberfranklin 1572 days ago
Can you be more specific? Like which model you mean?

AFAICT all the SiFive products that are available to purchase and have workstation-ish amounts of RAM require boot blobs. I would be happy to be wrong about this.

https://forums.sifive.com/t/remaining-agency-issues-to-be-so...

Apparently there was a very limited run of dev boards for which no blobs are needed, and then they promptly discontinued that product and replaced it with a (confusingly-similarly-named) blobbified product that you can pre-order via mouser (listed as "backordered, no ETA"). This product is already marked EOL which is not encouraging.

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pabs3 1572 days ago
I was just referring to their latest dev boards, which people have put in standard mini-ITX compatible cases, plugged in GPUs and used as workstations. Zero idea what blobs this requires. For eg:

https://drewdevault.com/2022/01/15/2022-01-15-The-RISC-V-exp...

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octoberfranklin 1572 days ago
> Today I’m writing this on the HiFive Unmatched

That board's firmware is not open-source at all. See the link in my previous comment.

> Zero idea what blobs this requires.

You've stumbled into the wrong thread, my friend. This thread is about open-source firmware. The stuff you're hyping does not deliver that.

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pabs3 1571 days ago
I hardly stumbled into this thread, I was the one who posted it to HN.

I am definitely not hyping anything, least of all SiFive.

This subthread started with the need for RISC-V workstations, I simply pointed out the closest thing to one of those. Of course I didn't mention the firmware situation, which was a mistake, but I also didn't know about the situation.

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