3 reasons why the Milk-V Duo S is my favorite tinkering machine

Development boards and SBCs serve as incredible companions for anyone interested in DIY projects. Not only are they small enough for all your tinkering needs, but these boards cost a fraction of what you’d pay for a full-fledged PC. But even among these devices, the Milk-V Duo S stands out with its experimental features. Having tested it extensively over the last couple of weeks, here are three reasons why the Duo S has become one of my favorite SBCs.

3 It features both ARM and RISC-V cores

Though there’s a major issue to this feature

Ever since the release of the first Raspberry Pi in 2012, ARM-powered SBCs have continued to grow in popularity. Meanwhile, consumer-grade RISC-V systems have only started making the rounds in the last couple of months. But what if you could switch between the open-standard RISC-V chip and the ol’ reliable ARM CPU on a single device?

That’s precisely what Milk-V attempted with their Duo S development board. Armed with ARM and RISC-V cores, the device comes with a tiny latch that lets you switch between the two CPUs. If you’re into app development, the ability to experiment with ARM and RISC-V microprocessors is more than enough to justify purchasing the device. Unfortunately, there’s one caveat to the dual-architecture setup: the ARM processor isn’t battle-ready just yet, and you’ll need to wait for further updates before you can properly use it with the SBC.

2 It’s budget-friendly

No need to spend $100+ on an SBC

Whereas most SBCs tend to cost upwards of $50, the Milk-V Duo S is priced at a modest $10. Even compared to the highly affordable Raspberry Pi Zero 2, the Duo S is still $5 cheaper than the SBC.

Of course, there’s no denying that while the Duo S can only run CLI-based OS, its Raspberry Pi-flavored competitor can run full-fledged GUI operating systems. But the Duo S is still ridiculously cheap for a device that ships with both ARM and RISC-V processors.

1 It’s quite powerful despite its small size

And it even has a couple of ports

Cheap development boards aren’t known for their processing speed and ports, though the Milk-V Duo S is pretty capable for a $10 device. The SG2000 SoC on the Duo S is more than capable of hosting light Flask servers and can even tackle minor projects like running a network-wide Pi-Hole server without breaking a sweat. In fact, if we were to go into the technical specs, the Duo-S should be enough to match the performance of Raspberry Pi Foundation’s budget offering, though it’ll be a few months before the Duo-S’ software can reach that level.

While the lack of a display connection means you’ll have to use the Duo S in a headless setup, it still has some decent connectivity options. Besides a PoE-compatible Ethernet port and an extra USB Type-A port, the Duo S is armed with two camera connectors. Heck, it even has 52 GPIO pins that let you pair additional sensors and accessories with it!

Despite its flaws, the Duo S is a worthwhile device for tinkerers

Although I’ve spent most of the article praising the Milk-V Duo S, it still has some notable issues. Even months after its release, the Duo S can’t run Arduino code, even though the other devices in the Duo lineup can. The ARM + RISC-V cores setup is definitely a groundbreaking feature, but the half-baked ARM support is quite the buzzkill.

Nevertheless, I still adore this $10 SBC because of its massive potential. I’ll admit that RISC-V isn’t optimized enough to enter the mainstream computing space yet. But affordable devices like the Duo S might be the panacea needed to bring more developers on board the RISC-V train.

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