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Date:      Thu, 27 Jun 2024 14:09:20 -0300
From:      Mitchell Horne <mhorne@freebsd.org>
To:        "Bjoern A. Zeeb" <bzeeb-lists@lists.zabbadoz.net>, freebsd-riscv@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: DC-ROMA RISC-V LAPTOP II
Message-ID:  <5004c562-5534-410a-b6b8-e88ebac1fc20@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <557op2n4-59rp-3s55-4204-98837850o64o@yvfgf.mnoonqbm.arg>
References:  <557op2n4-59rp-3s55-4204-98837850o64o@yvfgf.mnoonqbm.arg>

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On 6/15/24 18:39, Bjoern A. Zeeb wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> what do people think of:
> https://deepcomputing.io/product/dc-roma-risc-v-laptop-ii/
> 
> Could FreeBSD (sooner or later) boot on that?  I know the specs are
> sparse but maybe some of you have heard some more already?
> 

I would say "later, maybe never" we might boot on that. Here is what I 
could find about the "SpacemiT K1 SoC":

- SBC overview for Banana Pi BPI-F3 [1].
- SoC "datasheet" [2], some info but lacking in fundamental details e.g. 
clock/reset hierarchy, register map.

The biggest point against it is the source code repos linked in [1]. 
They contain the required changes to OpenSBI, Linux, and u-boot for this 
hardware, but in the form of one big code dump. One cannot see what was 
changed except by manual diff against the (unknown) branch point...

To support a SBC in the FreeBSD/riscv world we require semi-mature 
upstream status in the above three projects. This is similar to our 
best-supported arm/arm64 SBCs. Unfortunately in the case of the BPI-F3, 
upstreaming does not seem to be part of the plan/intention. Instead they 
are choosing to provide fully-vendored Linux as a flashable image. This 
is fine but greatly limits what we can do.

So we will need to keep an eye on the ROMA laptop to see how its 
upstream software status evolves.

There is another RISC-V laptop that was announced recently [3], but is 
not yet available for purchase. It is based on the JH7110 SoC, which has 
excellent support upstream and partial support in FreeBSD. I am working 
on improving this and suspect that by the time this laptop is shipped we 
will have a good chance of booting on it.

Best,
Mitchell

[1] https://docs.banana-pi.org/en/BPI-F3/BananaPi_BPI-F3
[2] https://docs.banana-pi.org/en/BPI-F3/SpacemiT_K1_datasheet
[3] https://frame.work/ca/en/products/deep-computing-risc-v-mainboard

> /bz
> 



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