RISC-V is giving away developer boards

RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Mark H Weaver]

Hello Guix,

This might be of interest:

  https://riscv.org/blog/2021/04/risc-v-is-giving-away-developer-boards/

Perhaps the Guix project would like to apply to get one of these?
What do you think?

      Mark

-- 
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> skribis:

> This might be of interest:
>
>   https://riscv.org/blog/2021/04/risc-v-is-giving-away-developer-boards/
>
> Perhaps the Guix project would like to apply to get one of these?
> What do you think?

That’d be great; a few people were interested in a port to RISC-V.

Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

If a couple people are interested in working on the port, we can apply
on behalf of the project and then make it available to those people.  If
things go well, we can eventually plug it in ci.guix as our first build
machine for the new architecture.

Who’s interested in coordinating the effort and applying?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Leo Famulari]

On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 06:36:29PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

I previously applied for early access to the BeagleV:

https://beagleboard.org/beaglev

I wasn't selected and I decided to focus on aarch64 for now.

Hopefully some other people can step up and apply via this new program!

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Pjotr Prins]

It is probably a good idea to apply from an academic institution to
increase chances of getting a free board. I am happy to help with the
application.

We already have the 2GB RAM polarfire which we mostly use for toy
stuff right now:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/07/20/polarfire-soc-icicle-64-bit-risc-v-and-fpga-development-board-runs-linux-or-freebsd/

If anyone is serious about a GNU Mes and/or GNU Guix port I can help
find a RISC-V board one way or another. Sounds like time and money
well spent to me.

Pj.

On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 01:15:49PM -0400, Leo Famulari wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 06:36:29PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)
> 
> I previously applied for early access to the BeagleV:
> 
> https://beagleboard.org/beaglev
> 
> I wasn't selected and I decided to focus on aarch64 for now.
> 
> Hopefully some other people can step up and apply via this new program!
> 

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Bengt Richter]

Hi all,

On +2021-04-30 21:35:22 +0200, Pjotr Prins wrote:
> It is probably a good idea to apply from an academic institution to
> increase chances of getting a free board. I am happy to help with the
> application.
> 
> We already have the 2GB RAM polarfire which we mostly use for toy
> stuff right now:
> 
> https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/07/20/polarfire-soc-icicle-64-bit-risc-v-and-fpga-development-board-runs-linux-or-freebsd/
> 
> If anyone is serious about a GNU Mes and/or GNU Guix port I can help
> find a RISC-V board one way or another. Sounds like time and money
> well spent to me.
> 
> Pj.

Could some riscv-model-version.scm be written to use qemu to create
an exact virtual metal RISC-V board (of the kind being sampled, for starters)
for use on our laptops and PCs?

I think that might get more people involved, and would ideally produce
images that would "just work" on the bare metal boards.

Maybe guix could become a preferred RISC-V development environment :)

Thoughts?

> 
> On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 01:15:49PM -0400, Leo Famulari wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 06:36:29PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > > Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)
> > 
> > I previously applied for early access to the BeagleV:
> > 
> > https://beagleboard.org/beaglev
> > 
> > I wasn't selected and I decided to focus on aarch64 for now.
> > 
> > Hopefully some other people can step up and apply via this new program!
> > 
> 

-- 
Regards,
Bengt Richter

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Pjotr Prins]

On Sat, May 01, 2021 at 06:14:14AM +0200, Bengt Richter wrote:
> Could some riscv-model-version.scm be written to use qemu to create
> an exact virtual metal RISC-V board (of the kind being sampled, for starters)
> for use on our laptops and PCs?
> 
> I think that might get more people involved, and would ideally produce
> images that would "just work" on the bare metal boards.
> 
> Maybe guix could become a preferred RISC-V development environment :)
> 
> Thoughts?

QEMU supports RISC-V and boots. Currently there are some Linux
development images floating around. A port should be possible.

But I think that real hardware is a major incentive. Besides industry
may pick up interest in our work (offering free boards shows they want
more development) if it runs on actual hardware. GNU Mes was ported by
Danny to arm64, so the port should not be too hard and Jan and
colleagues are happy to help. One can even apply for a grant at NLNet
that pays for a year of work:

https://nlnet.nl/news/2021/20210401-call.html

Note that GNU Mes kicked off with such a grant, as well as the arm
port.  We are happy to help with writing the grant too.

RISC-V is very exciting and will be performant. It is small, runs
cooler and therefore many more independent cores fit on the dye. Think
GPU without the disadvantages. Next to IoP RISC-V will power desktops
and perhaps supercomputers.

Pj.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Vincent Legoll]

Hello,

On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 7:08 PM Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
> Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> skribis:
>
> > This might be of interest:
> >
> >   https://riscv.org/blog/2021/04/risc-v-is-giving-away-developer-boards/
> >
> > Perhaps the Guix project would like to apply to get one of these?
> > What do you think?
>
> That’d be great; a few people were interested in a port to RISC-V.
>
> Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

I am interested.

-- 
Vincent Legoll

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Mark H Weaver]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
> Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

I'd be glad to help with development of the port, but I do not have
enough spare cycles at present to help with the process of applying to
get the hardware.

       Mark

-- 
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Danny Milosavljevic]

> Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

*raises hand*

In other news, tinycc has now an RISC-V assembler[1] :)

[1] https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2021-04/msg00009.html

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi!

It seems there’s a number of interested developers, great!  I believe
the RISC-V people expect a commitment from applicants to work on porting
software.  That means y’all need to be ready to dedicate some time to
this in the coming year or so.

Is anyone willing to take a closer look at the RISC-V membership
application Andreas mentioned, so we can decide whether to apply
collectively (possibly via Guix Europe) or otherwise?

Thanks in advance.  :-)

Ludo’.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Pjotr Prins]

On Tue, May 04, 2021 at 10:35:41AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> It seems there’s a number of interested developers, great!  I believe
> the RISC-V people expect a commitment from applicants to work on porting
> software.  That means y’all need to be ready to dedicate some time to
> this in the coming year or so.
> 
> Is anyone willing to take a closer look at the RISC-V membership
> application Andreas mentioned, so we can decide whether to apply
> collectively (possibly via Guix Europe) or otherwise?

And if someone EU-based is interested to work full time for 6 months
we should apply for an NLNet grant. Is it an idea to set up a matrix
room for this?

Pj.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Ekaitz Zarraga]

>
> And if someone EU-based is interested to work full time for 6 months
> we should apply for an NLNet grant. Is it an idea to set up a matrix
> room for this?
>
> Pj.

Depending on the needs and all that I would like to work on it
I'm not a Guix expert but I know quite a bit about RISC-V and
I think I could help on that. I'm EU based too.

Count me in!

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Pjotr Prins]

$99 boards with 1GB RAM. Getting there! 

https://liliputing.com/2021/05/nezha-is-a-99-single-board-pc-with-a-risc-v-processor.html

On Tue, May 04, 2021 at 08:53:05PM +0000, Ekaitz Zarraga wrote:
> >
> > And if someone EU-based is interested to work full time for 6 months
> > we should apply for an NLNet grant. Is it an idea to set up a matrix
> > room for this?
> >
> > Pj.
> 
> Depending on the needs and all that I would like to work on it
> I'm not a Guix expert but I know quite a bit about RISC-V and
> I think I could help on that. I'm EU based too.
> 
> Count me in!

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Gabriel Wicki]

hi

i'm also interested and in fact looking for an opportunity for my
bachelor thesis (coming fall semester). so i'd happily invest something
like 8-10hrs/week for 12-14 weeks (sept-dec). though not an expert with
neither guix nor risc-v i'd try to make up with enthusiasm and willpower.
and probably some of your help ;)

i guess the goal would be to get *guix system* to work on RISC-V
platforms, right?

is this thread [1] ("Porting Guix to RISCV", from last october) the latest
news on developments regarding guix and RISC-V?


g

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2020-10/msg00498.html

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Pjotr Prins]

> is this thread [1] ("Porting Guix to RISCV", from last october) the latest
> news on developments regarding guix and RISC-V?

Pretty much.

We have a few interested people here! GNU Mes is on board to help
create a bootstrap. I think it makes sense to submit an application to
NLNet and it also makes sense to become a member for RISC-V - and
maybe we can get some hardware.

I don't think it is appropriate to discuss ins and outs on this
mailing list. 

I set up an IRC channel #guix-risc-v. Connect from matrix with
#freenode_#guix-risc-v:matrix.org

Pj.

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Andreas Enge]

Hello Mark,

Am Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 11:29:59AM -0400 schrieb Mark H Weaver:
> This might be of interest:
>   https://riscv.org/blog/2021/04/risc-v-is-giving-away-developer-boards/
> Perhaps the Guix project would like to apply to get one of these?
> What do you think?

interesting offer, thanks for sharing it! It says that to obtain a board,
one needs to be a "RISC-V member", then the "join" link goes to a mailing
list on HPC. But there are more details on membership at:
   https://riscv.org/membership/

Individuals can become "community member" without fee, or we could also
have Guix Europe be a "community member" as a "registered non-profit".

Then there are pages and pages of fine print, which I did not yet take
the time to read.

Individuals affiliated to one of the existing members (among which there
are research institutes and so on) could also apply, I think.

In any case, we would first need volunteers for working on the port
before looking into the details.

Andreas

Re: RISC-V is giving away developer boards

[Ekaitz Zarraga]

> Could interested developers raise their hands?  :-)

Me: raises hand