BBC picks SiFive RISC-V chip for Doctor Who programming-for-kids kit – with Jodie Whittaker narrating
- Reference: 1605794404
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/19/bbc_doctor_who_sifive/
- Source link:
The Doctor Who HiFive Inventor will ship with a bunch of bits and pieces to get kids hands-on with electronics and programming: cables and connectors to interface with the outside world, various sensors, an LED color matrix, push buttons, a battery pack, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Crucially, it includes programming lessons narrated by Jodie Whittaker, who plays the thirteenth Doctor in the smash-hit family sci-fi series, bringing a familiar and reassuring voice to those attempting to embark upon what can seem a baffling new universe of lights, signals, and error messages.
The aim, to be clear, isn't to provide a complete general-purpose computer, but instead a beginner's learning aid, along the lines of the BBC [1]Micro:bit . You can use the Tynker programming platform to control it, using visual building blocks to form programs, or written code, such as Python, if you're more advanced.
The circuit board, as you can see, is shaped like a hand, and comes with a case. It's essentially a SiFive Learn Inventor [2]board , which was launched last year, with BBC and Tynker branding, plus the aforementioned components, and Doctor Who-themed case and teaching materials to encourage kids to give tech a try.
[3]
The HiFive Inventor board ... Source: SiFive
At the heart is an FE310-G003 system-on-chip designed by SiFive; its documentation is [4]here . It sports a 32-bit open-source RISC-V E51 CPU core clocked at 150MHz, with 64KB of data RAM and 512KB of flash storage. The core itself has 16KB of instruction cache. The SoC is fabricated by TSMC using its 180nm process.
The kit, we're told, also has four analog-to-digital converters; I2C, SPI, UART, and GPIO interfaces; a microUSB port for programming, debugging, and power; a so-called eCompass sensor outputting three-axis acceleration and magnetometer information; a temperature sensor; and an ambient light sensor. This is as well as the 6x8 LED matrix, buttons, wireless, and so on. A battery pack is provided to run it without hooking it up via USB.
This is a bit of a coup for silicon startup SiFive. Normally, this sort of tech is powered by CPUs designed by its rival Arm, and yet here's SiFive getting itself on the STEM education radar, and again demonstrating its chips are ready for mass production. SiFive just [5]unveiled its RISC-V PC board, the HiFive Unmatched, and has got its RISC-V cores into the 5G electronics of Samsung smartphones, among other gear.
While the folks at SiFive are probably pretty pleased at seeing their system-on-chip in a product linked to a global brand – the BBC – this has to be start of many, many design wins in the embedded electronics world if it's to catch up with Arm, which is in the process of being [6]bought by American giant Nvidia.
[7]
The contents of the Doctor Who HiFive Inventor kit ... A case for the board as well as cables, battery pack, and other bits and pieces
The Doctor Who HiFive Inventor, launching today, is due to go on sale from Monday, November 23, from the BBC's online store, Amazon, Pimoroni, and others, and is expected to be priced below $100. More details are set to be announced; watch [8]HiFiveInventor.com for info. Bulk purchases for schools and non-profits can be made by dropping schools at hifiveinventor.com a line. ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/updated_bbc_microbit/
[2] https://www.sifive.com/press/sifive-announces-sifive-learn-initiative
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/11/18/handout_hifive_inventor_board_big.jpg
[4] https://www.sifive.com/documentation
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/29/sifive_riscv_pc/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/07/nvidia_arm_plans/
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/11/18/handout_hifive_inventor_box.jpg
[8] https://www.HiFiveInventor.com
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Isme a time lord...
2056? So is that when they defrost The Donald?
Re: Isme a time lord...
" 2056? So is that when they defrost The Donald? "
Worse, they defrosted John Wayne. And he was mega pissed at what he saw.
According to Dennis Leary anyway.
Re: Isme a time lord...
>2056? So is that when they defrost The Donald?
No it's when the "Fast and Furious" wraps around a 32bit int
Re: Isme a time lord...
I've just checked the TV guide, you're right - Brooklyn Nine-nine is on at 2030, but I'm a 'Celebrity' is on at 2100...
Showing my age.
While my current thingy runs at 4.2GHz with 32GB of 3GHz RAM back in the day of 8MHz and 32kB I would have bitten your hand off for a spec like this
Timely rip-off
A $100 for a SBC? That's a bit rich isn't it? For the same amount you can get a full-blown Raspberry Pi 400 All-in-one computer.
And built on a 180nm process?! I'm surprised they could still find equipment to make that kind of stuff when the current state-of-the-art is approaching 3nm.
And for $13 you can get a board that uses a similar RISC-V processor with similar or greater power:
https://linuxgizmos.com/risc-v-based-allwinner-chip-to-debut-on-13-linux-hacker-board/
Delivery in Q1 2021.
Re: Timely rip-off
64KB of data RAM for $100.
Hs the doctor travelled back in time to 1984 for this price / specificaton? Maybe they should have asked Peter Davison as he would be the doctor associated with this level of limited tech.
Re: Timely rip-off
"And built on a 180nm process?! I'm surprised they could still find equipment to make that kind of stuff when the current state-of-the-art is approaching 3nm."
Most ridiculous statement of the day. Well done. 180nm is widely used and extremely low cost so perfect for such a toy. You'd need your head examined if you were considering to put such a tiny thing on any of the non-planar processes. Also there is no embedded flash available below 28nm so how would that work?
Re: Timely rip-off
A $100 for a SBC? That's a bit rich isn't it? For the same amount you can get a full-blown Raspberry Pi 400 All-in-one computer.
It's not $100 for just an SBC. It seems to come with three crocodile-clip leads as well :)
But to be serious, while one could buy a Pi cheaper it's a different target market. And try running your Pi 400 on three or four AA batteries and seeing how long it runs for.
Re: Timely rip-off
Not sure Pi4 is really the comparison.
But you could buy an Arduino for $5 and blink some LEDs without much more effort
Specs are fine for the use case, but
You can get a pi zero for about £5. “Less than” $100 (ie $99.99) seems very expensive.
It's already up at Pimoroni
The [1]"Inventor" kit is £64.50 while the [2]board on its own is £36. Somewhat less than $100.
The picture of the back of the board is more interesting than the one of the front (there are significantly more "things" on the back than on a micro:bit, and it almost looks as if there is an LED array on the back as well as the front), and it's also worth noting that the edge connector along the bottom is suspiciously similar to the one on the [3]micro:bit (£13.50 for the board-only). I wouldn't be surprised to see that it's compatible with micro:bit add-ons...
M.
[1] https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/bbc-doctor-who-hifive-inventor?variant=32310001107027
[2] https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/bbc-doctor-who-hifive-inventor?variant=32310001139795
[3] https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/microbit
Re: It's already up at Pimoroni
I bought a couple of these ages ago, but in black. The collateral was really not good - a tie-in to AWS to build a couple of toy projects, then seemingly orphaned.
It's the stuff round the edges which is important, and hard, and a massive time sink to create and curate. Micro:bit and Pi have that all up and running, we shall see if this gets traction, even with Dr Who branding.
I wonder how much of the cost has gone on licensing the Dr Who branding? As surely the board itself and the accessories can't cost more than about $10 to produce
It would have been cheaper to licence "EastEnders" - and more opportunities for product placement - Dirty Den's grand/great grand children playing with these on the kitchen table...
K-9
shaped variant?
BBC as usual out of touch with reality...
Isme a time lord...
This is me saying "Hello World" from 400 years in the future.
You are all fucked by the way. Things got a bit better for you between 2034 and 2056, but then it all really went to shit.