StarFive has opened crowdfunding for its second hobbyist-focused RISC-V single-board laptop (SBC), the VisionFive 2 — promising a sooner machine with twice the cores, a GPU, and twin gigabit Ethernet ports.
The unique VisionFive, unveiled late final yr and offered completely in 8GB kind from March this yr, was a powerful preliminary design however not with out its troubles: as our testing confirmed, design flaws within the silicon hampered efficiency whereas reliance on an outdated end-of-life working system — a state of affairs now resolved by Canonical’s current launch of an official Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 picture for the board — introduced its personal difficulties.
The VisionFive 2, although, is predicated on StarFive’s next-generation JH7110 system-on-chip (SoC) — not solely fixing the recognized flaws within the unique JH7100 chip however doubling the variety of usable processors from two to 4 and rising the clock velocity from 1GHz to 1.5GHz.
The largest change, although: the introduction of a graphics processing unit (GPU), the Creativeness Applied sciences IMG BXE-32-4, which unlocks new workload potentialities for the board and will enormously enhance the desktop expertise.
The board has an analogous structure to the unique, and goals to repair its varied shortcomings. (📷: StarFive)
“As RISC-V growth accelerates, we’re thrilled to proceed our collaboration with StarFive,” says Creativeness’s James Liu of the launch. “Collectively we recognise this structure’s significance, and we share a typical objective of driving ecosystem progress. We’re happy to see StarFive leveraging our GPU’s compatibility with RISC-V to unlock a variety of SBC implementations throughout main markets, accelerating innovation and supporting open-source growth.”
Different modifications within the design embody the addition of a second gigabit Ethernet port, official assist for each Fedora and Debian Linux distributions, assist for 4k30 video from the HDMI port, and a four-lane DSI port with 2k30 output alongside the prevailing two-lane DSI port. Not all of the modifications can be welcomed, nonetheless: the brand new board drops the unique’s on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, although in favor of a extra versatile M.2 M-key slot on the board’s underside, and the 2 CSI digicam ports have been trimmed all the way down to a single two-lane port.
The board loses on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, however positive factors an M.2 slot on the underside. (📷: StarFive)
Not like its predecessor, the VisionFive 2 is to get pleasure from a full manufacturing run — which means it is going to be out there in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB variants. The 2GB and 8GB fashions will ship in February subsequent yr, StarFive has promised, whereas a pre-production model of the 4GB mannequin can be out there in November this yr for early adopters — however can have one gigabit Ethernet and one 10/100 Ethernet port, rather than the 2 gigabit ports within the ultimate design.
StarFive is funding the boards’ manufacturing by way of Kickstarter, with bodily rewards starting at $49 for the early chook 2GB fashions — an enormous discount from the $179 retail worth of the unique VisionFive.
