PinePhone Pro's production halted in favor of RISC-V initiatives
Pine64 Shifts Focus to RISC-V and AI Projects
Pine64, the open-source hardware company known for its single-board computers and mobile devices, is making a strategic shift towards RISC-V and AI projects. The company announced that it will be focusing more on these areas, while discontinuing its higher-end smartphone for developers and FOSS enthusiasts, the PinePhone Pro.
New Single-Board Computers on the Horizon
Pine64's recent RISC-V projects include the StarPro64, FuriPhone FLX1, HMD Fusion, and Alpha One. The StarPro64 is a higher-end single-board computer (SBC) with four 1.8 GHz SiFive P550 cores and a 20 TOPS NPU. It is powered by the StarFive JH7110 SoC and is comparable in performance to older ARM Cortex-A55 chips. The StarPro64 supports basic Linux distributions like Debian and Fedora, though GPU driver support is limited and improving slowly.
The Alpha One is another RISC-V product from Pine64, which packages the Star64 in a passively cooled case along with a 64 GB eMMC, complete with Docker containers containing two different LLMs. The exact specifications of the FuriPhone FLX1 and HMD Fusion are not yet known, but they are believed to be part of Pine64's RISC-V push and may explore mobile and hybrid device form factors.
Continued Support for Existing Devices
Pine64 is also continuing to support its existing devices. The PineNote, an e-ink-based tablet, now supports improved multi-touch, better screen refresh handling, and stronger Wi-Fi. The older color LCD tablet, the PineTab2, also receives OS updates, including to Bluetooth support.
The original Arm OS, RISC OS, is still actively maintained. However, Pine64 has officially discontinued the PinePhone Pro, its higher-end smartphone. While the PinePhone Pro started shipping nearly four years ago, it has not had its spec upgraded since then. There is a very preliminary port of FreeBSD to the just-discontinued PinePhone Pro.
The lower-end PinePhone will stay on sale for an estimated two further years. The cost of the Oz64, a low-end RISC-V SBC, is $12.99, while the Star64 and StarPro64 cost $89.99 and $249.99, respectively.
Pine64's move towards RISC-V and AI reflects its commitment to open-source hardware and developer-friendly designs. Despite some challenges such as GPU driver maturity and kernel patch quality in the RISC-V community, Pine64 is expanding its open-hardware lineup and supporting software ecosystems.
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