On Mon, 16 Mar 2020 08:38:04 -0400
Dan Purgert <dan@???> wrote:

> On Mar 15, 2020, tom wrote:
> > [...] The biggest technical problem is the
> > lack of ASIC northbridge, or rather something to interface the CPU
> > to an PCIE bus. Currently the best thing available you can get is
> > an FPGA and it is a severe bandwidth bottleneck. It's also super
> > expensive getting an FPGA that beefy enough. I don't see RISCV
> > going anywhere until this is solved except microcontroller
> > applications.
> >
> > The second problem is patents that prevent RISCV developers from
> > implementing a lot of popular specs and standards. Just as an
> > example look at the licensing cost of implementing HDMI vs
> > DisplayPort.
>
> On the one hand, I understand why a "large market audience" device
> would need HDMI or DisplayPort or the newest whizbang 256K DNA
> ("Direct Neural Attachment") adapter is ... but why does that need to
> be on a small-market / hobby computer?
>
> I can only speak for myself, but a reasonably open PC at the $400 mark
> would certainly be competitive to dell or hp; even if it were
> "limited" in the peripheral interconnect area (assuming, of course,
> the motherboard's peripheral layout were well documented and people
> were encouraged to make stuff -- see arduino or rpi expansion boards )
>

generally you want to be able to attach a video card or high
performance disk controller to a PCIE slot. you /can/ do these things
with an FPGA but I wouldn't call it very reliable. You do too many
things or send too much data over the bus it exceeds the bandwidth and
the system locks up needing a reset.

--
____________________________________
/ Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? \

|                                    |

\ [Who guards the Guardians?]        /
 ------------------------------------ 
\
 \
   /\   /\   
  //\\_//\\     ____
  \_     _/    /   /
   / * * \    /^^^]
   \_\O/_/    [   ]
    /   \_    [   /
    \     \_  /  /
     [ [ /  \/ _/
    _[ [ \  /_/