$9 (USD) 1 Ghz RISC-V Dual Core Board that can run Linux - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 03:06:30 pm
content: New to me,https://www.hackster.io/news/milk-v-unveils-its-third-risc-v-board-in-a-month-the-9-dual-core-linux-capable-milk-v-duo-3fb5d9f978d1https://milkv.io/docs/duo/overviewhttps://milkv.io/duohttps://milkv.io/files/duo/duo-schematic-v1.1.pdfhttps://github.com/milkv-duo/hardwareUpdate - received a reply from their support team.Hi,The maximum transfer rate can reach above 40MB/s.More information about USB 2.0 of MILKV-DUO you can refer to the USB features as follow:Compliant with USB 2.0 transmission protocol specificationsBackward compatible with USB 1.1 transmission protocol specificationsSupports HS/FS/LS three speed modesSupports Host or Device functionalitySupports four types of USB transfer protocols: Control Transfer, Bulk Transfer, Isochronous Transfer, and Interrupt TransferCan be connected to a USB Hub to expand a single interface to multiple USB interfacesThrough USB Hub expansion, up to 127 devices can be connectedSupports USB 2.0 sleep/resume power-saving modeSupports HID devices such as keyboards and miceDevice mode is mainly used for downloading and updating internal software, and can also be used for other functions, such as data transferThe maximum transfer rate can reach above 40MB/sThe UART module has the following features:● Support for 64 x 8-bit transmit FIFO and 64 x 8-bit receive FIFO.● Programmable data and stop bit widths with data bits ranging from 5 to 8 bits and stop bits ranging from 1 to 2 bits.● Supports odd, even parity or no parity.● Programmable transmission speed.● Supports receive FIFO interrupt, transmit FIFO interrupt, and error interrupt.● Supports querying initial interrupt status and interrupt status after masking.● Supports DMA operation.I hope this information can help you ，thanks a lot.Prince PengTel:+86 18682150981E-mail:princemilkv.io

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 03:51:04 pm
content: Would have bought one immediately. Unfortunately not selling outside of china, yet

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 04:10:04 pm
content: Let me ping a local broker in China. Often they will handle a quick buy & sell transaction such as this one. The unit price will increase but at least you will have one to get started. Only a matter of time before it hits Aliexpress stores.

author: IOsetting
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 04:35:56 pm
content: Quite a few of these linux chips are basing on Xuantie C906https://xrvm.com/cpu-details?id=4056751997003636736SOPHGO CV1800B, (Milk-V Duo)Allwinner D1shttps://linux-sunxi.org/D1sAllwinner D1-Hhttps://linux-sunxi.org/D1Allwinner R128 (1 x Cortex-m33, 1 x Xuantie C906, 1 x HiFi5 DSP, not for linux)https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/03/06/allwinner-r128-wireless-soc-features-64-bit-risc-v-core-arm-cortex-m33-core-and-hifi-5-audio-dsp/Bouffalo Lab BL808https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/591067672(in Chinese, please use Google Chrome to translate it)The toolchains might be similar

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 05:00:42 pm
content: I would run away from any allwinner-based thing, their support for FOS / Linux is terrible.Rockchip does much better.Anyway, that board is already at Aliexpress, of course, at 150% the price it was initially anounced:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005696904563.htmlAttaching the CV180x datasheet (Google-translated) for the curious.But this board has nothing amazing, 1GHz Risc-V, 64MB ram with 16bit bus, uhh ...You can definitely get much better options for a little more: Rock Pi S, MangoPI, NanoPi, Banana Pi BPI-M2, OrangePi zero...2-3x the price, 10x better.

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 05:12:43 pm
content: Thanks David. Nice find.I see it at a very fair price to Canada @ $9,88 USD each.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 05:38:53 pm
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 14, 2023, 05:00:42 pmYup, I can confirm this.I spent 4 months fixing problems on both u-boot and Linux.Plus, some chips have a built-in hw bugged OR1.

author: lyxmoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2023, 01:51:30 am
content: The most meaningful part is that milkv-duo contains a NPU.but also lack abundant document as a new MCU, till now。

author: lyxmoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2023, 02:16:36 am
content: Quote from: lyxmoo on June 15, 2023, 01:51:30 amA CVITEK TPU

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2023, 02:57:29 am
content: Quote from: IOsetting on June 14, 2023, 04:35:56 pmC906 was designed in 2019, the first expensive ($100) dev board (AWOL "Nezha") was out in April 2021. Now available on probably dozens of different boards. One of the best features is the 128 bit vector unit conforming to RISC-V Vector extension draft 0.7.1 (the latest version in mid 2019), which is very easy to program with and can accelerate many things by a factor of 2x to 4x e.g. the following memcpy() implementation kills the 622 byte highly-optimised scalar code memcpy() in glibc:Code:0000000000000000 <memcpy>:0: 86aa mv a3,a00000000000000002 <.L1^B1>:2: 00267757 vsetvli a4,a2,e8,m4,d16: 12058007 vlb.v v0,(a1)a: 95ba add a1,a1,a4c: 8e19 sub a2,a2,a4e: 02068027 vsb.v v0,(a3)12: 96ba add a3,a3,a414: f67d bnez a2,2 <.L1^B1>16: 8082 retDraft 0.7.1 is not in general exactly compatible with the eventual 1.0, but the differences are small. For example, the above function is binary compatible with 1.0 if you change the vlb.v to vlbu.v -- which makes no difference as neither sign- nor zero-extension is needed when you load 8 bit memory elements into 8 bit vector elements. RVV 1.0 dropped truncation and sign- and zero-extension on load/store. If you want it in 1.0 you do it as register-to-register operations, load/store now just moves bits.The above chips of course can all simply use a standard RISC-V compiler. There are some useful custom instructions, more or less equivalent to the eventual ratified B extension, that can be used by THead's compiler -- or by the most recent gcc and llvm versions, as support for everything except vector has been upstreamed recently. But that's really incremental stuff that you don't actually need -- unless you need popcount or clz maybe.I write all my vector stuff in asm and use the old RVV 0.7.1 toolchain I've saved athttps://github.com/brucehoult/riscv-gnu-toolchainto assemble it, but perhaps compile my C code with the latest compiler and the link them. Or not. gcc 9.2.0 isn't soooo old that it makes any real difference.The Milk-V Duo is interesting because it's got dual 1 GHz C906, but the BL808 is not bad too and had been available for six months in the Sipeed D1s  and Pine64 Ox64. BL808 has a 480 MHz C906, a 320 MHz RV32IMAFC core, and another smaller RV32 core that seems to be dedicated to the WIFI/BT radio. It also has 64 MB of in-package PSRAM. The BL808 boards go for $6-$10 so the Milk-V is pretty attractive, but the BL808 is more of a known quantity for the moment.I don't know where Milk-V has come from. They seem to have suddenly sprung up with three boards at the same time:- Duo, 1x 1 GHz C906 with vectors, 1x 700 MHz C906 no vectors.- Mars, JH7110 SoC, 4x 1.5 GHz SiFive U74, same as VisionFive 2, Pine64 Star64 and PineTab-V- Pioneer, SG2042 SoC, 64x 1.85 GHz OoO C910 cores (similar to A72 in Raspberry Pi 4 or Graviton 1).

author: PCB.Wiz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2023, 10:33:21 pm
content: Quote from: JPortici on June 14, 2023, 03:51:04 pmhttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005699023966.htmlI cannot see mention of the USB speed - I'm guessing HS-USB ?Anyone know that limits the UARTS have ?This could be a useful debug/bridge part ?

author: lyxmoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 01:20:34 am
content: 1x USB2.05x UARThttps://milkv.io/docs/duo/overview

author: PCB.Wiz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 01:33:56 am
content: Quote from: lyxmoo on June 16, 2023, 01:20:34 amYup, and missing from that is any actual numbers for USB or UART speeds... We are left to guess maybe HS-USB ?

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:28:12 am
content: If it is marked as USB2.0 then it is 480mbps or high speed.USB 1.1 will be 12mbps.

author: AndrewBCN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 01:21:50 am
content: See attached images. The size is similar to that of the STM32F411 "Black Pill". Typical power consumption is <100ma from the 5V USB-C connection, with a 32GB microSD card. The CPU module warms up to some 10~12C above ambient.The available SDK creates a basic Buildroot image with a Linux 5.10 kernel and Busybox + whatever else one may want to have compiled for the RISC-V CPU. The USB-C cable is for power and also for an Ethernet-over-USB RNDIS connection to a development workstation or notebook.In my opinion a very interesting choice to "linuxify" a variety of electronics projects.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 03:06:43 am
content: Heh. I just posted a tweet two hours ago. Haven't powered it up yet.https://twitter.com/BruceHoult/status/1673134263338950656

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 03:12:21 am
content: I'm curious about the power consumption. Could you measure that?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 03:32:01 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on June 26, 2023, 03:12:21 am"Typical power consumption is <100ma from the 5V USB-C connection, with a 32GB microSD card"

author: lyxmoo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 03:55:41 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on June 26, 2023, 03:32:01 amI booted up with mikv-duo-20230519-1809.img ( 536,870,912B ) burned in a 8GB microSD

author: AndrewBCN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 12:37:50 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on June 26, 2023, 03:12:21 amSee attached image.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 08:39:09 pm
content: Thanks for this "proof".What is it executing? I suppose it's just "idle" with this kind of power draw?Because if it's with 100% CPU utilization, it would look exceptionally good.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 11:12:14 pm
content: The Orange Pi IOT is in the same price tag:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001620554804.html

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 11:59:52 pm
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 26, 2023, 11:12:14 pm$4.99 is really an exceptional price for dual core A7 at 1.2 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB eMMC, Mali 400MP GPU, WIFI/BT/GPS, and also a GSM/WCDMA/CDMA2000 etc cellular radio. Astounding!!How is it possible?I note that this is the3G-IOT board.Their other boards are in the $25 to $40 price range, which seems less surprising.Indeed, other vendors on Ali have this board for $17 and $24:https://aliexpress.us/item/1005004604935589.htmlhttps://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005004402087919.htmlAnd this 2018 CNX review shows it as a new product for $24.90:https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/05/29/orange-pi-3g-iot-sbc/Conclusion: the $4.99 price is a "let's get rid of some old stock" offer with probably very few units available.Great deal if you just want one or two and manage to nab them, for sure. But not really comparable to full retail price on a brand new product that you can probably buy 10,000 of if you want.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 12:41:10 am
content: Maybe. I bought one because why not?

author: IOsetting
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 06:55:56 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 26, 2023, 11:12:14 pmThe normal price of this board is 49 CNY in China mainland -- around 7$ without shipping. 4.99$ is a very good price.https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=622628571267

author: AndrewBCN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 05:12:21 pm
content: A screenshot of the SSH login and the milkV Duo, with the headers soldered for experimentation on a breadboard, see attached images.Also the pinout kindly provided by milkV.Note that the provided Linux 5.10 kernel only activates the main RISC-V core, the second core is not available. Also some 26MB of RAM are reserved for the ION memory manager which is not used by Linux programs, AFAIK, leaving some 32MB of RAM available for general use. This in principle can be changed by editing a configuration file before generating the microSD card image, but I haven't tried it yet. It's on my list of TODO things.

author: AndrewBCN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2023, 10:37:07 am
content: Reconfigured kernel, resized ION reserved RAM to 4MB, rootfs partition 512MB. See attached screenshot.

author: nick liu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 29, 2023, 04:03:46 am
content: If it is marked as USB2.0 then it is 480mbps or high speed.USB 1.1 will be 12mbps.

author: Shonky
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2023, 06:25:53 am
content: Quote from: nick liu on June 29, 2023, 04:03:46 amUSB 2.0 does not guarantee it supports 480Mbps. You don't need to support 480Mbps to be USB 2.0 compliant

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2023, 06:45:13 am
content: It is a HS device.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2023, 02:54:44 pm
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 26, 2023, 11:12:14 pmSo I received it.Curious about possible upgrades, I found It might be doable by replacing the MCP memory (Multi package, eMMC+DDR2) with a larger one like H9TP18A8JDMCPR-KGM (16GB eMMC, 2GB DDR2).Not easy as it's a BGA, these chips normally use 0.25mm balls.But if you have the time and the willing, they can be found for $10 at AliExpress.Just a curiosity, not worth it as for little more you can get a better board.