ch32v307 VS picorvd

VCC-GND Studio is about to launch similar boards based on CH32V307.

But if you're looking for RISC-V + integrated PHY, take a look at WCH's CH32V307 - just add magnetics, termination and an RJ45 jack and you've got 10BaseT.

Yes, English datasheets can be found - along with code examples, board schematics etc - at the openwch/ch32v307 Github repo.

More realistically, I DO think there's value for a terminal server that's just an ethernet connection (even one that's ancient) with some amount of programmability that's connected to 80 GPIO pins, some of which may be serial ports. I could imagine testing 1-2 Raspberry Pi-class with a bed of nails style test jig that confirms that all the GPIO, JTAG, and such are at least toggleable by sending synchronized signals to the BeagleBone/VisionFive/ESP32-C3/ whatever to confirm that all the I/O pins survived the fine wires from the wafer to the package plus all intervening PCB vias and soldering and so on. (Maybe you can't test board X with another board X because there's a different number of inputs and outputs.)

looks to be IMAFC from the PDF on their github (https://github.com/openwch/ch32v307/blob/main/Datasheet/CH32V20x_30xDS0.PDF)

I agree with your sentiment, but I am more optimistic about the future of RISC-V. It considerably lowered the barrier of entry for vendors, and so there are more of them! Higher competition usually means that users win: they get lower prices, open-source toolchains and firmware, etc.

For one, I am very excited about the tiny CH32V003 ([1], [2]) that costs ~$0.10 and can be programmed with completely open-source tools, see [3] and [4].

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Wrv7nW-S8

2. http://www.wch-ic.com/products/CH32V003.html

3. https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32v003fun

4. https://github.com/aappleby/PicoRVD

They've been available for a few months now and a few of us hardware hackers have been improving the state of open-source tooling support for them.

I have an almost-fully-working GDB remote stub up at https://github.com/aappleby/PicoRVD that allows flashing, debugging, breakpoints, stepping, etc and only requires a Pi Pico and one resistor - no proprietary dongle or modified OpenOCD needed.