Sipeed Lichee Pi 4A RISC-V SBC review and Debian demo. This is the first RISC-V computer I’ve tested that’s provided a usable desktop computing experience right out of the box. End-user RISC-V is starting to arrive! :)
You can learn more about the Lichee Pi 4A on its web page here: https://sipeed.com/licheepi4a
And the board has excellent documentation here: https://wiki.sipeed.com/licheepi4a.html
Note that the hardware I used in this video was purchased from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10050…
I have reviewed four previous RISC-V SBCs, including the StarFive VisionFive 2, which also (after some messing around) provides a good desktop experience:
• VisionFive 2: RISC-V Quad Core Low Co…
I also have an 2023 update on RISC-V developments here:
• RISC-V 2023 Update: From Embedded Com…
And my general introduction to RISC-V is here:
• Explaining RISC-V: An x86 & ARM Alter…
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Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Unboxing 03:33 Specifications 07:26 First Boot 10:37 Debian Demo 18:10 Another Milestone
The AliExpress link was 404’d for me. How much was the board?
Listen, listen. Listen.
No. Shut the fuck up. Listen
Dual gigabit Ethernet ports.
If you don’t need 10g speeds, this is a sick little pfSense/OpenSense board.
I’m only vaguely familiar with risc-v. What is the current state of running containers on it? Can I just spin up an existing x86 or arm container? Or is this a new build target that some images may not support yet?
If your container target —platform is the same as your bare metal ( or VM, but that’s not what we’re talking about): works great.
If they’re not the same, docker needs a virtualization layer to work, since the kernel of the host machine OS cannot be trivially shared with the container.
I can’t thank you enough for reminding me about this channel.
Performance is coming along amazingly well! And the prices dont seem to be inflating either. Within a few years ARM could face some real competition in desktop computing