Lichee Console 4A – RISC-V mini laptop computer : Overview, benchmarks and early points : Svarichevsky Mikhail
Temporary specs and internals
To start with, Lichee Console is tiny, 185 x 140 x 19 mm, 656g. Construct is strong and high-quality, utilizing principally aluminum. Keyboard has typical laptop computer key journey and to my really feel corresponding to Lenovo’s however it’s in fact fairly a bit smaller. I can’t kind on it blindly (but), however it’s attainable. The one inconvenient a part of keyboard (in context of Linux) is compressed keys [,][.][/], which are sometimes utilized in console. Trackpoint mouse is okay for somebody who had all of it these years on Lenovo laptops.
Lichee Console 4A runs on T-Head (Alibaba) TH1520 quad-core RISC-V SoC (4x C910 cores). Whereas TH1520 can clock as much as 2.0/2.5Ghz, in Lichee Console it’s tamed right down to 1.5Ghz max, probably to assist with thermal dissipation. Most configuration is kind of severe for such tiny factor: most of 16Gb DDR4 RAM (I received this model) and most of 128Gb eMMC. There’s a slot for 42mm SATA M.2 SSD, but it surely related by way of ASM1153 USB3.0->SATA adapter. Extra on that later.
I would favor engaged on M.2 SSD as you possibly can maintain the information if one thing else fails (eMMC is soldered on the board and can be costly to get better). 42mm SATA SSD’s will not be very fashionable, and the very best I used to be capable of finding was Transcend MTS400 256Gb (it’s nonetheless in transit). There are various such SSD’s from Chinese language manufacturers although.
Show has decision of 1280×800 and appears to be IPS. No colour shift at excessive angles. There’s a webcam on the left aspect of the monitor – it’s common high quality full HD 30p (requires good lighting), panorama orientation. It’s attainable to attach exterior show by way of mini-HDMI (cable included). It labored high-quality on FullHD monitor, however unstable/non-working on 4k.
Battery is 2S 3000mAh. Charging will be carried out by way of USB-C (most 5V 2.2A, doesn’t set off 9/12V) or by way of 12V jack (which I personally won’t use). 12V energy brick got here with Chinese language/US plug, so if you wish to use it – you will want an adapter. Jack exterior diameter is 3.45mm (central constructive), if you happen to would wish to discover a 12V PD set off adapter for it (one thing like this however double test voltage). Extra on battery life beneath.
On the software program aspect – Debian 12 with Xfce is preinstalled, constructed for 64-bit RISC-V. WiFi or Ethernet connection was easy, and Chrome-based browser was in a position to play YouTube video with no points. apt replace fetches packages from Chinese language server.
Unboxing video beneath (no feedback):
Construct high quality:
There was only one construct high quality challenge on my pattern: apparently aluminum backside a part of case was squeezing keyboard, or one thing was urgent and bending keyboard outwards barely (~1mm), which was catching display backside when opening and making unhealthy snapping sound. After reassembly & urgent on keyboard within the center – the difficulty was resolved.
Disassembly/meeting is comparatively difficult on account of tight match of aluminum backside cowl, and I don’t advocate to disassemble the unit except completely essential.
I don’t like metallic clips holding lithium battery in place. After sufficient vibration and abuse, some swelling on the battery it’s not unthinkable that they could chew into the battery and destroy the unit. Even when 0.1% of models will burn down on account of this potential challenge – this can be very unhappy. Plastic bracket for the battery or glue in place (unliked by many and exhausting to service) are properly examined by the business and secure. What makes it exhausting to do properly is flex cables beneath the battery. On my unit I added kapton tape beneath and over the metallic bracket to make sure it doesn’t wiggle over the battery and has a tougher time biting into the battery.
Not like most laptops, Lichee Console makes use of 2 PCB’s along with SOC module, and it will chew us later. IO board has microsd card slot, USB and analog audio. 
SoC module is detachable. Warmth is transferred by way of silicon pad to a heatpipe glued to aluminum again cowl. 
Benchmarks & checks
CPU & Energy
| TH1520 @1.5Ghz | Raspberry Pi 4 | Raspberry Pi 5 | |
| idle energy | 7.68 / 6W (with/with out display) | 1.93W | 2.42W |
| CoreMark 1 core | 6900 | 7938 | 17725 |
| Energy 1 core | 8.376W (with display) | 2.70W | 4.47W |
| CoreMark 4 cores | 25689 | 31532 | 69860 |
| Energy 4 cores | 9.408W (with display) | 4.85W | 7.35W |
Right here efficiency is barely behind Raspberry Pi 4 on account of clock velocity being decreased from 2.0 to 1.5Ghz. Personally I discover efficiency of Raspberry Pi 4 completely acceptable for console work, and I’m happy with efficiency of TH1520 for my use. I’ve included Raspberry Pi 5 for comparability because it’s already 2024, and later this 12 months we’ll (hopefully) see competing merchandise utilizing CM5.
What I do not like although is excessive static energy consumption of Lichee Console. At idle system goes right down to 300Mhz, and even with 3 cores manually parked – it nonetheless consumes ~6W (with out display). This static energy consumption makes Lichee Console fairly heat even at idle. Additionally, this provides us simply ~2.5 hours of battery life with none heavy load. As USB charging is proscribed to 5V/2.2A – Lichee Console will cost extraordinarily slowly when powered on (~3 hours to full cost when switched off and ~10 hours when switched on). Absolutely, 12V 3.45mm barrel charging is far quicker.
Dynamic energy consumption of C910 cores are rated at 200µW/MHz/core, which supplies us 300mW dynamic energy consumption for 1 core at 1.5Ghz, and 1.2W for 4 core load. Measurements affirm these numbers, so the one challenge is excessive static energy consumption. On ratio efficiency / dynamic energy it’s completely aggressive to Raspberry Pi 4, it is just static half that hurts it.
To analyze excessive static energy consumption I made thermal photograph at idle:
Right here we see that roughly half of energy is dissipated by Through VL817 – USB 3.0 hub IC situated proper beneath SoC module. Much less however nonetheless important energy is dissipated by ASM1153 USB->SATA adapter, regardless of no SATA drives related. That is fairly disappointing. If no software program repair can be discovered to disable unused interfaces, I’m personally contemplating de-soldering these IC’s or disconnecting them from energy. 5-6 vs 2.8 hours of battery life is extra vital for my use.
This excessive idle energy consumption might be why cooling fan is all the time on (fortunately it’s quiet), even after I put Lichee Console contained in the fridge 🙂
WiFi & Ethernet
WiFi module is related by way of SDIO. Sensible velocity by way of iperf3 is 122/115 Mbit/sec. “Not nice, not horrible” – however ok for normal use.
Wired Ethernet does 925/925 Mbit/sec with out jumbo packets which is almost nearly as good because it will get. SoC has 2 Ethernet ports, only one is accessible on Lichee Console.
Disk efficiency
eMMC
Random 4k: Writes 8102 IOPS, 31.6MiB/s. Reads 2502 IOPS, 9.77MiB/s
Random 1Mb: Writes 202mb/s, Reads 130mb/s
Random entry is slower than fashionable quick microsd playing cards, however sequential is suitable (for eMMC).
MicroSD:
Testing quick MicroSD playing cards (Samsung Professional Final, Sandisk Excessive Professional) which may negotiate quickest attainable velocity (as much as 200Mb/s) – uncovered that they’re unstable and operations fail with io errors. That is probably attributable to extraordinarily lengthy sign path : from SoC, then to flex connector, then folded flex cable, then path throughout IO board. Outdated/gradual MicroSD playing cards work reliably however at snail velocity. Hopefully most interface velocity for MicroSD will be decreased in software program with out affecting eMMC velocity.
At the moment lacking/damaged options (principally software program):
1) Bluetooth was failing to pair gadgets out of the field utilizing GUI instruments.
2) No sleep perform. It’s important to change off / boot up each time you open Lichee Console.
3) Undecided if there may be sensor detecting closed display. Proper now when closed it simply continues working with the display on.
4) Adjustment of display brightness doesn’t work (it’s all the time at max brightness, or off).
5) Suboptimal energy administration resulting in excessive static energy consumption: Is it attainable to disable VL817/ASM1153? Is SoC provide voltage scaling appropriately at idle?
I’ll replace the article right here as software program is improved.
Conclusion
My total expertise with Lichee Console is constructive and I prefer it. It needs to be famous that in the meanwhile it’s extra of a product for tinkering and never one thing that you would be able to instantly use as-is for work with no adjustments. Substantial enchancment can be required on software program to totally make the most of {hardware} capabilities (however this typically occurs with Linux on cellular platforms). {Hardware} has some flaws, they’re disagreeable however not deadly (microsd stability at excessive velocity, excessive idle energy consumption). I’m involved about battery security, and hopefully that is one thing that Sipeed can enhance.
12nm TH1520 SoC supply competetive dynamic energy consumption and adequate efficiency, however lacks in IO (for desktop) which pressured Sipeed so as to add further interface ICs which occurred to devour an excessive amount of static energy.
I hope that present speedy tempo of RISC-V infrastructure improvement will proceed and within the nearest years we’ll see extra RISC-V SoC’s, this time with at the very least few traces of PCI-E – and we’ll get much more thrilling Linux-capable RISC-V gadgets.
PS. Should you like microchip internals – you might like my blog about boiling acid and microchips : https://zeptobars.com.