Cheap Risc-V Supercluster for $2 (DIY, CH32V003)

Available for Flex, Rogers,PTFE Teflon, Copper Core, Aluminum and FR-4

I couldn't resist to make a RISC-V Supercluster. The CH32V003 MCUs are only 10 cents each so I couldn't resist to put 16 of those on one PCB. That comes with all sorts of challenges. But it's only a little practice for what's going to come...

Parts & tools(affiliate links):

0:00 Intro cheap Risc-V
0:50 Cluster design
2:20 PCB Ordering and part management
3:26 My first 4-Layer PCBs
3:50 Assembly
4:55 Blind design gone wrong
5:44 Sometime we are lucky
6:44 Open drain bus protocol
7:27 First blink program
8:22 to be continued...

plz share :-)

Twitter: @bitluni
reddit: u/bitluni

#electronics #riscv

[igordasunddas]

I'm just a software engineer, but this hardware stuff always fascinates me. Awesome video! Thank you!

[melvinolson]

When he showed the super large tiled panel at the end of the video, it reminded me of startrek computers with all the blinking lights.

[hansdietrich]

Normally, when you make a 4+ layer board, you use the internal layers as power planes. On the one hand it is very convenient to just put a via next to each VCC and GND pad and be done with routing power, on the other hand, it provides proper return paths for the signal traces, as they are electromagnetically coupled to the nearest reference plane. Robert Feranec has some really interesting videos about proper PCB design practices

[kayezero]

Bro wake up bitluni uploaded a new video

[IONYVDFC]

Your enthusiasm is infectious :-) I would love to see a cluster like this solve large parallel synthesiser calculations or other audio conversion modules like digital reverb. Pure Data is a great starting point which has been around for decades as an IDE (as a simplified GUI) for modular synthesis on x86 and ARM based SBC's. I know I am probably dreaming now, but since Risc-V is open source thing, I can imagine using this flexibility to developing an instruction set tailored to digital signal processing.

[hstrinzel]

Amazing that you can remain that cheerful and positive on SUCH DIFFICULT projects! Well done and keep right on going! I also enjoyed your earlier ESP32 breakthroughs.

[BangkokBubonaglia]

Make a fast phased ADC. You have 64 ADC's. Apparently the ADC clock is 24 MHz, 10 bit sigma delta conversion. That means you should be able to get 2MHz conversions. If you get the timing right, starting each conversion at exactly the correct clock phase, you may be able to build up to a 128 MHz, 10 bit ADC. That is damn fast for a $2 component. Of course, you'll have very limited memory so you won't get a very long sample window. Even if you only store 8 of the 10bits, that is a maximum of 512 samples per channel at 2MHz, or 256uSec of data. You'll need to make sure all the chips are synchronized to an external clock. It would be interesting to see what you can actually achieve given the real limitations of the hardware. After you know, you can turn it into a very cheap, albeit slow oscilloscope.

[oscarcharliezulu]

I remember working on a Sun Sparc with two 50 mhz processors and it was considered a high end workstation at the time! Here are 16, 48mhz RISC processors on a pcb the size of the sparc cpu.

[apaskiewicz]

Holy sheet. I have never seen your channel before, and I'm in awe! Thank you so much for this video!

[icebluscorpion]

There is a trick for the runny solder paste let it partially dry out In The open and don't use it right away. On the other scenario where the paste is to hard you can add liquid flux to get the consistency right just mix the dry out old paste with the new one until consistency is perfect.

[peter.stimpel]

finally, some good use of the Pink LED fundings. Nice.

[TheTinkerDad]

"How many cores are too many?" - you're the Ivan Miranda of electronics :)

I can't wait to see what can you do with this cluster!

[RDMB]

I lost count on how many times my man... my teacher.. my idol... my role model said cheap. I feel SINCERE SHAME for not being subscribed. I need more of this mans in my life no homo.

[ikocheratcr]

If the CPUs could talk between each other, a neural network would be pretty fun.

[YippeePlopFork]

Bitluni, you’re obviously unaware but almost all of the YouTube movies that have inspired me, intrigued me and given me experiment ideas have been yours. You are awesome. Thank you 😊👍

[profdc]

Perhaps consider using a PNP constant current pull-up on the open drain bus to help speed things up. This could be as simple as a current mirror with 2N3906. This will probably at least double the speed of the bus.

[tangiblewaves]

"you know, I like it cheap" - totally my attitude too! To get the most out of the cheapest parts is soo much fun, isn't it!
A really great video; you have one more subscriber! ✌❤

[mervmartin]

DEC's PDP series used a buss master so wouldn't have data collisions. Love the cluster!

[Pixelcrafter_exe]

Following the idea of maximizing mcu count you could for cost efficiency look for adressable led strips with use a mcu as controller chip for the insividual led groups. It would then just be a matter of bridging over the diodes which block the upstream comunication.

[rbamba]

Really cool! Gonna wait for an update for the bus upgrade.