Risc-V Linux 6.1.72 Kernel Compile on Milk-V Pioneer

Demo of a full Sophon RISC-V Linux 6.1.72 kernel compile using the Milk-V Pioneer board (riscv64 architecture). Build is on a RAMdisk to showcase CPU and memory performance only.
milkv.io/pioneer
github.com/sop...

[@garrettmandujano2996]

Core load distribution is so even

[@loneXin]

Should be able to cross-compile a kernel for x86 and boot a PC

[@movax20h]

Thanks for making this video. Much appreciated.
Not too bad. 110W at full load is pretty good. Of course one needs to know that this 64 cores are not that great, especially with limited memory bandwidth. A modern Ryzen with 8 cores will perform close to performance of this guy, and use similar amount of power.
But it is definitively great development system if one is really into RISC-V. For me it is a pass for now. But if they improve it a bit, make memory speed faster, use newer cores with some extensions, and make ACPI work of of the box, I will definitively grab one. Great platform for writing parallel algorithms, running bulids/tests, hosting stuff, etc.

[@alexk4894]

It can be even faster in ramdisk :)

[@berzoidberg3272]

This video is already doing the build in ramdisk

[@dissonantiacognitiva7438]

How usable is it? Did you get the lame graphics card or something beefier?

[@kevpatt]

It's quite usable. I got the bare board and put my own GPU, Radeon RX 580. But the OS and drivers need a lot of optimization work. When that is in place I think the performance will be great. Right now for example Firefox is a dog, because I believe there is no acceleration of rendering. But CPU-only / command line stuff is fast.

[@dissonantiacognitiva7438]

@@kevpatt great, I was thinking of stuffing one of these in my old iMac untill I saw the cooler size
How hot does it get?

[@kevpatt]

@@dissonantiacognitiva7438 The stock cooler that I got with the bare board is significantly smaller than the one pictured on the launch pages; it's more flat with a horizontal fan vs. tall with a vertical fan. With the fan attached, the board definitely doesn't run hot. I think the highest temp I've seen is about 60 C.
To measure power draw, I ran the board off a small, single-board DC-DC ATX power supply, which uses a single 12V supply from a benchtop DC power supply. This allows me to measure total system power through a single 12V supply. The DC-DC converter is about 95% efficient.
Results (motherboard w/ single 2TB NVMe drive and CPU fan): ~55W at idle and ~110W under full CPU load. All of that is ultimately converted to heat, of course, so you can figure between 60 and 120W of heat dissipation.

[@dissonantiacognitiva7438]

@@kevpatt that is in spec with the power consumption advertised I think
The GPU not working is peculiar, I would thought a standard GPU would work, I did some ports for my Chromebook which was arm panfrost drivers and even that ran nicely
Old ATIs should run fine, I thought the drivers were open
Nvidia is forget about it, Intel arc gpus look interesting