SiFive has opened orders for its high-performance quad-core HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V board, although in restricted portions — because it seems to let a choose few get hands-on with the {hardware} forward of software program finalization and a December full launch.
“Since saying the HiFive Premier P550 boards in April, we have labored intently with Canonical to ship a best-in-class {hardware} and software program expertise,” claims SiFive’s Martyn Stroeve, head of the corporate’s HiFive board program. “We all know many builders are desperate to get their palms on this highly effective new board, so we determined to launch a restricted Early Entry Version. On the similar time, we’re finalizing the software program stack for the December launch, which we consider will ship highly effective efficiency and usefulness for builders. We’re excited to see the innovation and creativity that may come from this.”
SiFive’s HiFive Premier P550 is right here — for 100 or so early adopters prepared to attend for completed software program, not less than. (📷: SiFive)
When SiFive unveiled the HiFive Premier P550 — which is distinct from the HiFive Professional P550, a cancelled design created in partnership with Intel that by no means made it to market — it promised a high-performance system-on-module (SOM) that includes its out-of-order execution 64-bit P550 RISC-V cores as applied in an ESWIN EIC7700 system-on-chip. Different options unveiled on the time included a neural processing unit delivering a claimed 13.3 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of compute efficiency for on-device synthetic intelligence and machine studying, as much as 32GB of LPDDR5 reminiscence, 128GB of eMMC storage, and a provider board in a mini-DTX type issue.
Now, the corporate has revealed further specs — although just for an “Early Entry Version” restricted to 16GB of RAM. The 4 P550 cores are, SiFive confirms, clocked at 1.4GHz, there’s an Creativeness AXM-8-256 GPU, although software program assist will solely be obtainable “earlier than 12 months finish,” and the promised neural processing unit.
This latter function, of appreciable curiosity to these engaged on edge AI, comes with excellent news and dangerous information: the excellent news is that it has been boosted to ship a claimed 20 TOPS of compute at minimal precision, up from the originally-promised 13.3 TOPS; the dangerous information is that it is “at the moment not supported in software program,” with no phrase on when that is more likely to change.
The {hardware} has loved a couple of upgrades for the reason that board’s April unveiling, although the NPU just isn’t but supported in software program. (📷: SiFive)
Different options confirmed for launch embrace two gigabit Ethernet connections, a separate Ethernet port for distant administration, an M.2 E-key slot for Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth radio modules, a full-length four-lane PCI Categorical Gen. 3 slot, two stacked USB 3.2 Gen. 1 Kind-A connectors, further connectors for 3 extra USB 3.2 Gen. 1 ports on a case’s entrance panel, one SATA 3 connector, a microSD Card slot, an HDMI 2.0 port, an analog audio interface, three fan headers, a real-time clock, and a 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header with 16 GPIO pins, one UART bus, one quad-SPI bus, and one I2C bus.
On the software program facet, SiFive remains to be promising a partnership with Canonical, which can deliver Ubuntu Linux 24.04 to the platform — however not proper now. As a substitute, the board will ship with a customized Yocto-based Linux distribution that lacks assist for the on-board graphics processor; those that want a GPU are suggested to choose up an AMD RX500 or HD6000 PCI Categorical GPU within the meantime. The improve is promised by 12 months’s finish, which can then be adopted by the board’s full launch with Ubuntu pre-installed and a working GPU.
“The collaboration between ESWIN Computing, SiFive, and Canonical to deliver Ubuntu 24.04 to the HiFive Premier P550 highlights the core values of RISC-V: openness and collaboration,” claims Canonical’s Gordan Markuš. “The HiFive Premier P550 stands out because the premium growth board for fanatics and builders, serving to drive the subsequent wave of cutting-edge RISC-V growth. We’re proud to see Ubuntu Linux as a key enabler of this innovation and growth on the Premier P550 board.”
The HiFive Premier P550 has, not less than, prevented the destiny of its predecessor, the cancelled HiFive Professional P550. (📷: SiFive)
The HiFive Premier P550 will not be the corporate’s final design, both — nor the final to function its RISC-V cores: “To fulfill [growing demand for RISC-V], we’re creating a brand new sequence of HiFive boards providing various efficiency ranges, capabilities like scalar and vector compute, and at totally different worth factors,” Stroeve says.
“We’re excited to announce our new HiFive Accomplice technique and HiFive Permitted program, which can assist scale our choices and produce extra silicon options to market, in collaboration with our ecosystem companions. This builds on our broad product portfolio, and with over 400 design wins we’re positioned to deliver prospects one of the best RISC-V platforms throughout extra functions and markets.”
For individuals who cannot wait, SiFive has partnered with Arrow to promote the “Early Entry Version” at $599 — although there are solely slightly over 100 items obtainable for early adopters. Extra data is accessible on the SiFive web site.
