this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Single Board Computers

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Technically both are RISC based but probably they are way different in implementation. I'm thinking about buying a RISC-V SBC, and I just want to be sure about compatiblity with running ARM based software.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

RISC is just a design philosophy, ARM and RISC-V are different command sets (opcodes) and software will have to be recompiled to run on it without emulation, which would be slow.

Think of it like languages. Both Japanese and English can describe an apple, but the actual words are dramatically different.

A good thing is that with the ARM revolution people have gotten used to building and debugging code that can build on both x64 and ARM, so being able to build and run on RISC-V is like learning a third (or fourth language if you include going from x86 to x86-64) and anyone who’s learned languages will tell you each one is easier to learn than the last. It will take less time for developers to have RISC-V build targets in theory.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ahh I see, so that means I would probably be an 'early adoter' to urging companies including RISC-V in their build targets, right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, the idea is already in practice with Pine products, as their products are RISC-V powered and they blatently tell you that you should only buy this if youre interested in development, or at least technical.