Re:A smaller, cheaper RISC V board
by leggomylibro on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @05:34PM
(#15289036)
Wow, an Espressif device with a RISC-V core would be amazing, even if the power consumption/efficiency weren't quite top-notch. I'm not willing to put in the effort to get a deep knowledge of a brand like Tensilica when there are options like ST's or TI's ARM Cortex-M chips that blow it away in terms of peripherals, power, compatibility, tooling, etc. But an open standard has all kinds of ancillary benefits.
Their goal is to be the standard ISA for all general purpose computers; microcontrollers, embedded controllers, servers, HPC, workstations, laptops, smartphones. Microcontrollers happen to be one of the quickest markets to enter with a new ISA.
> devices like the ESP32 going for $8 with wifi and bluetooth
Well, give Espressif some time, they've been a member of the RISC-V foundation for a while; so I suspect they'll be dropping Tensilica for RISC-V at some point. Maybe we'll see a module like this with RISC-V cores in the nearish future. For now it surely isn't competing in the same part of the market. For what it's worth, the FE310 seems to basically lead in power and peak performance in its category; there are surely some use cases which it is already enabling.