Framework Launches the RISC-V DeepComputing Laptop 13 Mainboard, Warns It's "Developer-Focused"

Modular laptop specialist Framework has announced availability of the first third-party Mainboard designed for use with its in-house chassis design: the DeepComputing DC-ROMA RISC-V Mainboard for Framework Laptop 13.

"This is very much a developer-focused board to help accelerate maturing the software ecosystem around RISC-V, so we recommend waiting for future RISC-V products if you’re looking for a consumer-ready experience," Framework's Nirav Patel says of the launch. "The team at DeepComputing designed it to drop directly into a Framework Laptop 13 chassis or Cooler Master Mainboard Case. They have published setup guides for the hardware and for installing Ubuntu and Fedora."

Framework announced its partnership with DeepComputing to produce the first third-party Mainboard back in June last year, following the company's work on its own in-house laptop and tablet designs based on the RISC-V architecture. The Mainboard — Framework's terminology for the single-board computers which power its laptops — is designed for use with the Framework Laptop 13, rather than the larger and newer Framework Laptop 16, and is also compatible with the desktop Cooler Master Mainboard Case.

"To make it easier to jump into using a new partner-developed Mainboard or reusing an old one, we're also introducing the Framework Laptop 13 Shell today," Patel adds. "This is a complete Framework Laptop 13 chassis with everything except for the Mainboard, memory, storage, and Wi-Fi. We’re eager to continue making Framework products excellent platforms to extend on. Modularity and open source documentation is good for everyone!"

DeepComputing's Mainboard is hardware-compatible with the same add-on modules as the official Framework Mainboards, though the software side of things is still very early. Rather than Intel or AMD x86 processors, as with Framework's in-house designs, DeepComputing's Mainboard is based around the RISC-V instruction set architecture as implemented in the StarFive JH7110 system-on-chip — giving it four SiFive U74 processor cores running at up to 1.5GHz, a SiFive S7 monitor core, and a SiFive E24 real-time core. There's 8GB of RAM on-board, too, which is not user-upgradeable, and a microSD Card slot for storage.

The DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard is now available to order on the Framework website at $199, though all technical support post-delivery is to be handled by DeepComputing; those without an existing Framework Laptop 13 in which to install it will need the Framework Laptop 13 Chassis at $399 on top.