new laptop Described as the first ever to run on top of RISC-V-based silicon, it is now available for Pre-order (Opens in a new tab) Online.
The product of a collaboration between DeepComputing and Xcalibyte, the new ROMA laptop will be equipped with a quad-core RISC-V processor and companion GPU, Security Pocket Arm, up to 16GB LPDDR4/X RAM and up to 256GB on-board storage.
ROMA, which will support most Linux distributionsDesigned primarily for developers working on software originally designed to run on RISC-V chips.
“The assembly of the original RISC-V is a milestone,” He said (Opens in a new tab) Mark Himmelstein, chief technology officer of RISC-V International, the body tasked with promoting the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA).
“The ROMA platform will benefit developers who want to test their software running locally on RISC-V. It should be easy to port code developed on this platform to embedded systems.”
RISC-V reaches the laptop market
RISC-V is a free and open source ISA built on the same design principles as Arm’s proprietary cores, which charges royalties each time they are integrated into a chip.
At the moment, RISC-V-based processors are much less popular than either Arm- or x86-based chips, but the movement seems to be gaining momentum.
For example, China is now leaning heavily on RISC-V in hopes of reducing its dependence on Western semiconductor companies. And even Intel is in the space, presumably coming to the conclusion that x86 can’t compete for long-term energy efficiency.
The recent success of arm-based processors such as Apple’s M-series chips is evidence that RISC designs can have a future in the PC and workstation market, something not lost on RISC-V International.
So far, RISC-V has been found exclusively in development kits, embedded technology and the like, but the jump to full-featured client hardware seems to be on the horizon now.
“The original RISC-V laptop for the ROMA development platform demonstrates the power of collaborative culture and the potential of the RISC-V ecosystem,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International.
“This design is a critical bridge between the development boards and the RISC-V . list Business laptops that will be used in daily work. We salute the contributions of the entire development team who collaborated to achieve this important moment.”
To round out the deal and celebrate the occasion, the first 100 models sold will also come with the commemorative NFT. Do whatever you like.
There has been no confirmation on pricing yet (the ‘pre-order’ process currently only extends in terms of submitting the declaration of interest), but the ROMA laptop is expected to begin shipping in September.
