Interesting, I didn't realize the connections were so deep. It does make sense.
Do you think RPi might be hurt by not adopting RISC-V if it takes off? If some of their competitors offer it, could one of them dethrone RPi?
Do you think RPi might be hurt by not adopting RISC-V if it takes off? If some of their competitors offer it, could one of them dethrone RPi?
It'd depend entirely on the level of support a competitor offers, right? I mean that's why RPi is still so popular despite there having been a number of ARM competitors offering more power per dollar for like a decade now. The strong software support led to a strong community/overall ecosystem, which has led to a strong install base, which further improved the community and ecosystem.
It's a combination of first mover advantage with continued strong software support that keeps them so prominent as-is. I don't see why a different ISA would fundamentally change that formula.
I don’t follow the space closely but the times I’ve checked out other offerings, they’re not competitive in price/$ or it won’t have wifi or other features to be comparable.
I actually started looking at older used desktops- which are fine for some uses and not so much for others.
Also, OBS runs great on it, although it’s not taking advantage of the on-board MPP media accelerator (H.264/265 and other codecs). Apparently GStreamer has support for it though and some folks have experimental FFMPEG forks adding support.
Other companies will make RISCV Pi alternatives in the same format, but the RPi Foundation won’t go there.
The RPi shortage led me (and my coworkers) to examining the field of competitors, and all of them were buggier, less stable and badly documented in comparison, sadly. Perhaps that's changed since?
Offering RISC-V isn't a benefit to anyone - who really cares? I would guess a tiny number of people. Only if the performance is amazing will it matter. If that performance isn't accessible via software then bad luck too. ARM is not likely to have much trouble keeping up. To beat RPi someone would probably have to accept very marginal returns - I doubt that RPi Ltd is raking in silly amounts of money. It started from a charitable foundation and has to be barely profitable but I think it has no competitors because its situation is unattractive.