SiFive update on HiFive Unmatched boards in 2022

I look forward to advancements in the family of boards.

Will the pricing be similar to the Unmatched?

Will the RAM be soldered on or socketed to allow us to choose our RAM configurations?

Will you please please engineer a quitter cooling solution and use standard footprints for heat sinks and cooling fans. What dev wants a jet engine sitting on their desk while trying to code/port to the platform.

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I agree with everything except the RAM.

Even the PC industry is moving away from socketed RAM. Too much delay, too hard to tune, too much energy use. We’re seeing more and more soldered in RAM and even RAM in the CPU package, as with Apple.

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I agree. RAM sockets made alot of sense back when you couldn’t afford more at the time you bought a PC and you knew the PC board would stay with you (half) a decade. These days RAM is not the cost factor and by the tie your amount of memory (a whopping 16GB for the Unmatched) is outdated, the whole board likely is.

IMO all in all the Unmatched is a great board. It’s really nice for RISC-V development. PCI-E and USB added a lot of flexibility. A lot of linux software could be ported, thanks to this. As for a future board,

Agree with regard to the cooling fan. This was a pain for both the Unmatched and Unleashed. Please install a non-noisy one by default :smile:

I think RAM sockets make sense for high end servers, where one might install 256+GB of RAM depending on the application. But for what is essentially a SBC 16GB hardwired is plenty.

My foremost wish for a future board would be stability under high loads and long term use without resets. E.g. I’d hope Intermittent kernel oops under heavy load and the USB HID connectivity issues USB Disconnect no longer occur.

just checking here, according to CrowdSupply the site is still stating there’s a pre-order with an estimated ship of Feb 11th? I presume this is just stale and still needs to be unlisted - as opposed to some last order still coming through?

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I also put Unmatched in the 1U rack, the noise is much higher than other 10cm fans. I wish the newer boards comes with bigger and more quiet fans.

Thanks for the update @phil.dworsky.

I agree with most things said here. It would be very nice of you could do the Unmatched a last service by providing a good/supported guide to fix the fan noise.

Nice update.

As for the $10^6 question when will the FU740 silicon be available in raw, packaged, individual component form, as is the FE310?

Same question as @Gourry, same thing on Mouser.
Does it mean there’s still some stock released in February?

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I considered this board for building my home NAS. Main hardware limitation:

  • single pcie slot x8 - will be greate to have second slot as possibility to switch in x4 + x4 mode. Usage: 10GbE ethernet controller and sata RAID controller.
  • ECC RAM
  • slot memory - soldered memory faster, but some times need to increase memory capacity. It is not critical, but will be great to install up to 32-64 Gb (ZFS need a lot of memory in some configurations).

So, I decided to wait next generation of this board.

Same question as others regarding preorders with CrowdSupply and Mouser.

I paid $740 to CrowdSupply on 1/2 with the expectation of boards shipping 2/11. Now that date has come and gone with no clear communication or refund. I had also spent a few hundred more on a case and accessories that are sitting here already set up and waiting for the board to arrive, which will have been a total waste if the board isn’t coming.

I would expect that SiFive has an obligation to fulfill preorders for customers who already paid prior to this announcement.

I have been excited about RISC-V and SiFive‘s products, but this is beginning to feel like amateur hour.

PaulCreaser has just posted his board arrived a day ago,
so I still hope that mine will arrive.
When I ordered mine on Mouser the number on back order was 230,
its now at 226, by logic they have a batch of 360 on order and only 226 left to sell,
I have no first hand knowledge but after that I doubt there will be another run,
From reading the news, I expect SiFives full steam ahead on a server chip for Intel.
And the U740 is marked as end of life on mouser.

Hopefully with the Intel capital infusion this means we will have successor to the Unmatched at a far lower MSRP?

price is one thing, but performance also needs a good (say 2x?) boost for any kind of serious linux gui development imo…

i cant justify buying another if that isn’t addressed since there wouldn’t be anything new i could do with it anyways…

I am pretty confident we will see a quick increase in both clock speed and core count (“performance”) with successive generations.

FYI for folks waiting on crowd supply, if you check your invoice details it updates with estimated ship date

mine is presently: Currently estimated to ship on Mar 03, 2022

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Same here, just saw it. Better late than never. :+1:

Update—after months of waiting, CrowdSupply just canceled my order:

Order cancelled. Details: Thank you for your order. Unfortunately, we just became aware that SiFive has ceased manufacturing HiFive
Unmatched. As such, your order has been canceled and fully refunded.
Please allow up to ten days for the refund to appear on your credit card statement. For more information, see:
(Link to this thread)

Really??? Just became aware??? Unbelievable.

So in addition to giving CrowdSupply an interest-free loan for a few months I’m out hundreds on a case etc. that I’ve already set up and can’t return.

This is a terrible way to treat customers/enthusiasts. I want the product I ordered, not excuses/apologies.

Crowdsupply also just canceled mine as well.

Hepofully you will be pleasantly surprised with a successor board with better performance cpu, more memory, for a lower price shortly?

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