> Emulation on a modern X86 CPU will outperform any commercial available RISC-V processor at the moment
That's not true.
qemu-user is a little faster than the single-issue HiFive Unleashed from 2008, but qemu-system is slower.
Against either the dual-issue U74 cores in the JH7110 or the small OoO cores in the TH1520 and SG2042 qemu doesn't sand a chance on a core for core basis.
It used to be the case that qemu could win on x86 by throwing more cores at the problem, but with the 64 core SG2042 in the Milk-V Pioneer that possibility has disappeared too -- not to mention that the Pioneer is $1500 for chip+motherboard (need to add RAM and storage), while a 64 core x86 is $5000 just for the chip.
> There are plenty that exist, but i haven’t heard of anyone using them or any stores selling them.
You probably can't walk into your local mall and walk out with one, but it's easy enough to buy boards on Aliexpress or on Amazon (it's usually the same company, shipping from China, either way)
As for people using them, I guess most people simply don't advertise what they're using. I'm working at a very large company that is porting certain x86/Arm software to RISC-V. We're using the VisionFive 2 as the reference device. It's the best current combination of performance, price, and software maturity. I've also got the Lichee Pi 4A and the software works fine on that too (it would be shocking if it didn't) but it turns out that despite the specs on paper the VF2 is 20% faster anyway.
If you need to use SIMD/vector rather than plain C then the only choice for RVV 1.0 at the moment is the CanMV-K230 which has a single 1.6 GHz core vs quad core on the other boards. It's also only just come out. My order made on October 29th hasn't arrived yet, though they claimed on November 12 that they'd received stock for it. Mind you the Pi 5 I ordered on September 29 only just arrived last week, so this is not unusual for brand new boards.
