Is GigaDevice actually selling the RISC-V GD32VF103 on the open market yet? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2020, 11:28:25 am
content: Their official distributor search turns up no results, none of the usual suspects are selling it, and ultimately I only foundone Taobao shop offering the GD32VF103CBT6-LQFP48.Seems kind of weird sincethey have published datasheetsand companies like Sipeed have been selling boards featuring the chip for half a year already.Edit: List of sources provided in this threadand elsewhere:https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=601843298479official Nuclei store on Taobao (see also their support and forum site,https://www.riscv-mcu.com/... the admin says they will ship overseas)https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=601201001128official GigaDevice store on Tmallhttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000843847611.htmlDUOWEISI on AliExpresshttps://www.tme.com/au/en/details/gd32vf103cbt6/microcontrollers-others/gigadevice/TME (ships to AU/NZ; may not ship to USA)

author: OwO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2020, 12:00:15 pm
content: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.4.7cd3489fCNZ7Zu&id=601201001128&cm_id=140105335569ed55e27b&abbucket=4&skuId=4207107093899This one is from the gigadevice official taobao store and shows 1500pcs/month of sales. It probably doesn't show up in a search outside china because they don't ship internationally.

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2020, 08:29:45 pm
content: Thanks for that.It didn't show up in a search because Taobao seems to require an account for searching, and refuses to activate my account or allow login with an existing AliExpress account. Not a big deal for ordering because friends can add my stuff to their orders, but I don't want to bug them with searches.

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2020, 10:09:22 pm
content: There are also services like yoybuy to buy stuff from Chinese stores. Searching there only gives boards, but when you paste the url it looks like you can order using their site.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2020, 01:43:43 am
content: The magic word is: "longan Nano".It's a "blue pill" like board (only red) and costs about USD 6 on Ebay, or USD 8 with a small LCD (OLED?) on it's back.Apparently they also sell on Ali, but Ali won't let me check it without logging in first. Because of this i'm seriously considereing going back to Ebay for Chinese stuff, even though I also do not like buying stuff from China through an american company.I found a reference to this board in:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/really-thinking-to-quit-with-microchip/

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2020, 08:07:36 am
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on March 20, 2020, 01:43:43 amYeah, but that's not a bare chip it's a board.I bought ten of them about six months ago from Seeed Studio. US$4.90 each, including an LCD display and plastic case. Amazing.

author: ale500
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2020, 10:40:38 am
content: When you order the longan Nano please take into account that is being sold in two versions: the one with the display has the CB (letter B) variant of the chip (128k Flash, 32 kRAM), and the ones being sold without the display, sometimes called "lite" have a C8 (number eight) with only 64 kFlash and only 20 k SRAM. At least the ones I have seen.

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2020, 08:19:27 pm
content: I have two boards without display, which came with the CB variant.Also, I am waiting for delivery of some chips I've bought using yoybuy.Edit: I've received them yesterday.

author: hansd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2020, 01:37:07 am
content: There is alsohttps://www.seeedstudio.com/SeeedStudio-GD32-RISC-V-Dev-Board-p-4302.htmlavailable.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 23, 2020, 08:56:03 pm
content: But what about chips? Can't design anything with the chip if it's not available for purchase. And if I can't design anything with it, of what use is a dev kit?It looks like the GD32VF103 is the same µC as GD32F103 except they've dropped in a RISC-V core instead of an ARM. It has all the same peripheral out of the same constellation (presumably code compatible), and even uses AHB, APB, and the ARM AHB-APB bridges. It swaps out the ARM core peripherals with a different set. I didn't look too closely, but it seems they have similar functionality. Anyone know if these are standard for RISC-V, or something GD made up? There are some minor differences in the specifications, and VF103 seems to add a USB FS peripheral that I don't see in F103. F103 is available in beefier models with a whole lot more peripherals, so VF seems to target low-end controller needs. A cursory look in the datasheets seems to suggest VF and F packages are pin compatible and drop in compatible. That's very cool!I'd love to whip up a test board and populate one with an F103 and the other with a VF103... But without chips...I guess could buy a few of the dirt cheap dev kits and pull the CPUs; the VF all seem to be QFP and a QFN-32, so no BGA reballing needed.I'm not working right now and due to Covid isolation can't really look for work, so will likely have a couple of months to tinker with things like this. (I just submitted gerbers for PCBs to experiment with the TI CC2571 ANT RF transceiver, using an MSP430F5510, to play around with ANT and the ANT+ device profiles, as a generic programmable 8-ch ANT USB transceiver. And evaluate the plausibility of a set of derived ANT profiles similar to and based on ANT+, but for control applications. After that RISC-V would be fun to look at.)

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2020, 10:13:01 pm
content: Quote from: bson on March 23, 2020, 08:56:03 pmIt was linked by OwO above,chip:https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=601201001128$2dev kit:https://lcsc.com/product-detail/New-Arrivals_GigaDevice-Semicon-Beijing-GD32VF103C-START_C432220.html$12use a reshipper or do a group buy if you need them.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 23, 2020, 10:18:52 pm
content: I ordered 5 of the Sipeed Longan Nano with the GD32VF103CB on AliEx. (QFP-48, 128k flash, 32k SRAM)Will just desolder and reuse the CPUs.

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2020, 08:52:08 am
content: An AliExpress seller is now offering the bare GD32VF103CBT6 ICs.That would be both cheaper and easier than cannibalisation.

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2020, 08:55:06 am
content: Awesome!

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2020, 11:35:23 pm
content: I've found them at tme.com, which seems to be headquartered in Poland.https://www.tme.com/nz/en/details/gd32vf103cbt6/microcontrollers-others/gigadevice/That's an LQFP48 package. Also listed in QFN36, LQFP64, LQFP100 with stock currently ranging from 77 to 490 pieces.I've ordered 25 of the LQFP48 to spread the 20 euro shipping cost to NZ. All looks fine so far.Let me know if anyone in NZ/Aus wants some.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2020, 12:19:01 am
content: My order arrived in New Zealand after eight days.

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 01:28:37 am
content: Quote from: I wanted a rude username on March 09, 2020, 11:28:25 amExcuse me, but why do you need RISK-V GD32VF103?What development tools are available for it and how is it better than the usual GD32F103?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 01:40:20 am
content: Quote from: S. Petrukhin on November 02, 2020, 01:28:37 amI guess for academic purposes since they are a bit more expensive than ARM version. There is little practical reason going for them so far.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 02:40:10 am
content: Quote from: wraper on November 02, 2020, 01:40:20 amHow do you get "more expensive"?Looking at Mouser for a part as close as possible to those GD32VF103 chips (32K RAM, 128K flash) LQFP48 85C I get...https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STM32F103CBT6?qs=WxFF5lh7QM3goh6GV5Ogig%3D%3DThat's got the 128K flash but only 20K of RAM, not 32. And it runs at 72 MHz instead of 108 MHz. And it's $5.53 qty 1 vs $2.75 for the GD32V.The GD RISC-V chip is literally half the price of the STM one.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 03:03:18 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on November 02, 2020, 02:40:10 amBy comparing to the GD32F103, not the STM32F103?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 03:21:47 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on November 02, 2020, 02:40:10 amWhy did you suddenly pull STM32F103 price from Mouser rather than GD32F103 price from TME where you got those GD32VF103?https://www.tme.eu/en/details/gd32f103cbt6/microcontrollers-others/gigadevice/$2.16 at qty 1.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 03:29:15 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 02, 2020, 03:08:29 amWhat is Chinese "free market price" forGD32F103? If this is true, it's hardly believable it should be more than $0.35 since ARM licensing fee is only a small part of the cost.

author: hansd
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 02, 2020, 05:46:53 am
content: Quote from: S. Petrukhin on November 02, 2020, 01:28:37 amI use it with Embedded CDT and J-Link EDU and Seeed GD32VF103VBT6.

author: Joku
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2020, 01:51:14 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 02, 2020, 03:08:29 amI assume this is USD$0.3 for the cheapest 16K Flash + 6K SRAM variant. If that were my pricing, it would be enough for me to start adopting GD32FV103 series in some projects, providing the pricing for larger memory configurations scaled competitively.Sadly it's not even close to my reality in the West. I suspect for commercial products, Risc-V will be sitting in my ignore basket for quite some time yet. I've been thinking that cheap low/mid tier multi-core Risc-V solutions may be what is needed to really shake things up.