Single Board Computers

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A community for the discussion of all single board computers. Raspberry Pi is ok, but there are so many other boards now that get looked over that deserve attention.

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Can RISC-V SBCs use ARM software? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 10 months ago by PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz to c/sbcs@lemux.minnix.dev

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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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[–] Moosemouse@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 10 months 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.

[–] PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz 3 points 10 months 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?

[–] dudewitbow@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months 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.