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"Weird" chips and how to find them
(hexbear.net)
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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Why not something RISC-V? There are some pretty robust SBCs now that could be bolted into a screen and keyboard.
I'm looking to design my own board. I'd use a RISC-V chip but they seem to be impossible to find through the usual electronics distributors. I might email SiFive or one of the other vendors but I suspect I won't be able to acquire just a few chips cheaply...
I wonder if some of that is because a lot of the RISC-V SBC products I've seen are Chinese designs-- maybe they're not as widely available in the Western supply chains.
The Usual Sources (Mouser or Digikey) don't stock my favourite RISC-V MCU (WCH CH32V30x), but you can buy them all day long on AliExpress.
I wonder if SexyCyborg would have any ideas. She's the most cyberpunk human being on the planet, if anyone would know where to get unusual chips in China she would.
Is she a Hexbear user?
Oh I had never heard of that vendor! I'll have to check them out. I've been looking at AliExpress on and off but it's really hard to find stuff unless you know exactly what you want.
There's some nice designs in China that seem impossible to get in the West. Would love to check out some of Loongson's offerings or something like that. There's also a line of Russian microprocessors called "Elbrus" that have a very interesting VLIW architecture. But that's definitely impossible to get now with the sanctions.
I guess neither of those would be suitable for a portable device anyway lol. Maybe I'll just deal with it and get some cheap widely available ARM stuff.