I stumbled across a project called DietPi -- https://dietpi.com. Scroll halfway down the main page and you'll see many SBCs that it works on and might be good alternatives. Khadas are not on the list, though; I've never heard of them before now.
But my problem with all these SBCs (including VisionFive) is they max out at 8 GB of RAM. This is a problem for me because I want to run an Ethereum validator, and the software stack needs 16+ GB RAM. Is anyone aware of an SBC supporting 16 GB?
A normal computer has features I want to avoid, such as size, heat, fans, large power supplies, etc. A single-board ARM or RISC computer has all the compute power and peripheral connectors I need. The only missing piece is sufficient RAM.
Khadas Edge2 Pro has 16GB of RAM, $340 tho, available now, even from amazon.
Radxa ROCK 5B also has 16GB of RAM, $220, available via ameridroid.
Jetson Orin NX 16GB has 16GB of RAM, $600, available in Dec, would probably also require a carrier board of unspecified price.
Why is this the case? Personally, I feel like getting a RPi has been harder than getting a 3090, PS5, or Xbox Series X—it's a fundamentally cheaper, underpowered product, that should theoretically be able to produced in serious droves.
I get the current economic and supply chain uncertainty, but I figure the shortages that have been going on for this long don't merely chalk up to that. Is there more to it?
IIUC, it's basically their demand skyrocketed (not that their supply went down) and still is. They just can't produce enough of them [1] despite efforts to do so.
They've also prioritized supplying companies that committed to building systems based on their boards over hobbyists. I think there's a solid argument that's healthier for the ecosystem long term.
My concern is that a large portion of the population who has traditionally used RPi for projects will have pivoted away to another platform by the time they are available again.
I'd like one so I can use it for Mathematica. Running it on my RPi B (the original) is pretty underwhelming these days.
Eben has no say in it. Broadcom/Avago decided not to order chips, so no chips are being manufactured. Eben can decide directly about RP2040, and unsurprisingly those are being manufactured and available.
16 comments
[ 430 ms ] story [ 1405 ms ] threadhttps://www.starfivetech.com/en/site/boards
But my problem with all these SBCs (including VisionFive) is they max out at 8 GB of RAM. This is a problem for me because I want to run an Ethereum validator, and the software stack needs 16+ GB RAM. Is anyone aware of an SBC supporting 16 GB?
Aren't those boards like $200? Can't you get a "normal" computer at that range?
I get the current economic and supply chain uncertainty, but I figure the shortages that have been going on for this long don't merely chalk up to that. Is there more to it?
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/you-cant-buy-raspberr...
https://github.com/sschueller/rpilocatorbot
I'd like one so I can use it for Mathematica. Running it on my RPi B (the original) is pretty underwhelming these days.