SiFive is opening doors to a brand new era of RISC-V with ‘Hi-Five Unleashed’, the first RISC-V-based Linux development board. Using the royalty-free RISC-V ISA, this single-board computer suits applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, networking, gateways and smart IoT devices. The HiFive Unleashed development board brings together Linux and RISC-V for the first time.
The board features the company’s Linux-capable RISC-V based processor SoC, Freedom U540.
The Hi-Five Unleashed features the company’s own Freedom U540 RISC-V SoC, along with 8GB DDR4 ECC RAM, 32MB Quad SPI Flash, a microSD card slot for external storage, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and an FMC connector for future expansion cards.
During the FOSDEM open source developer conference, SiFive also demoed the first real-world use of the board.
Specifications of the HiFive Unleashed board include:
- SiFive Freedom U540 SoC
- 8 GB DDR4 with ECC
- Gigabit Ethernet port
- 32 MB quad SPI flash from ISSI
- microSD card for removable storage
- FMC connector for future expansion
Here are Freedom U540 processor specs:
- 4+1 Multi-Core Coherent Configuration, up to 1.5 GHz
- 4x U54 RV64GC Application Cores with Sv39 Virtual Memory Support
- 1x E51 RV64IMAC Management Core
- Coherent 2MB L2 Cache
- 64-bit DDR4 with ECC
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet
- Built in 28nm process technology
“With the Freedom U540, the first RISC-V based, 64-bit 4+1 multicore SoC with support for full featured operating systems such as Linux, the HiFive Unleashed development board will greatly spur open-source software development”, the company noted.
Developers can purchase the HiFive Unleashed development board here. A limited batch of early access boards will ship in late March 2018, with a wider release in June.
For more information, visit https://www.sifive.com/products/hifive-unleashed/
