The latest edition of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu from the British distributor Canonical now officially runs on processors with RISC-V architecture from SiFive and the single-board computers from StarFive based on it. For the first time, both companies are providing official support for the open source platform.
Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS for SiFive RISC-V processors
At the industry meeting RISC-V Summit 2021, the company StarFive, co-founded by SiFive, presented the VisionFive V1, a compact single-board computer with the RISC-V processor StarFive JH7100 for AI applications under Linux, which has two processor cores and 8 GB LPDDR4 on 100 × 72 mm accommodates. On this system, Canonical and SiFive respectively StarFive are now providing official support for the free operating system Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (“Jammy Jellyfish”) for the first time.
Like Cindy Goldberg, Vice Canonical's President of Silicon Alliance and Thomas Xu, StarFive Founder and CEO, in a joint announcement, SiFive, StarFive and Canonical are partnering to advance Ubuntu and Linux on the RISC-V architecture.
Ubuntu is the most popular open source operating system, and we are thrilled to be expanding support for the RISC-V open source community.
Canonical and StarFive are partnering to create an enterprise-grade Ubuntu image for the new VisionFive board, bringing open source software and open source hardware together for developers to build a broad range of computer vision applications at the edge.
I can't wait to see what developers are going to build with this VisionFive board and Ubuntu.
Cindy Goldberg, Vice President of Silicon Alliance, Canonical
< p class="p text-width">The first system to be officially supported, the StarFive VisionFive V1 comes in the familiar format of single board computers like the Raspberry Pi and has the following specifications:
- StarFive JH7100 RISC-V System-on-a-Chip
- SiFive U74 dual-core @ 1.5GHz
- 2MB L2- Cache
- 64-bit
- 2 × 4 GB LPDDR4-2800 SDRAM
- 4 × USB 3.2 Gen1 with 5 Gbit/s
- IEEE 802.11n with 2.4 GHz
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 100 × 72 mm
Compatible displays and cameras can be connected to the single-board computer via the 40-pin GPIO connector known from the Raspberry Pi and two MIPI-DSI and -CSI connectors.
With the help of the integrated neural network engine for AI algorithms and the Nvidia Deep Learning Accelerator (NVDLA), the StarFive VisionFive V1 is particularly suitable for the AI-supported processing of camera data, as the manufacturer explained in its presentation (PDF) at the RISC -V Summit 2021 explained.
Ubuntu for RISC-V is available for download
Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS in the RISC-V version, which can be downloaded directly from Canonical, runs with it on RISC-V systems from SiFive, StarFive and Allwinner. See the official press release for more information.
- DeepComputing Roma: Development notebook with RISC-V processor is limited
- StarFive VisionFive V1: Single-board computer with RISC-V costs 150 US dollars
- The Open-source architecture: Background knowledge on RISC-V and ISA from the community
- Open CPU architecture: RISC-V Summit 2021 starts on December 6
- Cooperation: SiFive is coming along RISC-V closer to Intel