SiFive Discontinues Its HiFive Unmatched RISC-V PC Boards Following "Supply Chain Issues"

SiFive has confirmed reports that its HiFive Unmatched RISC-V single-board computer has been discontinued, blaming "the challenge of supply chain issues" — but says a next-generation replacement is in the works.

SiFive, a pioneer in the commercialization of the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture, launched the HiFive Unmatched back in 2020 as the most powerful RISC-V device around. Based on an ITX layout, the board includes four Freedom U74 high-performance and one S7 real-time core and 8GB of DDR4 memory — upgraded shortly before shipping to 16GB.

Supplies of the board have been dwindling, however, with several resellers listing the part as "discontinued" — a status SiFive has now formally confirmed.

"With such great ecosystem adoption, demand has exceeded our already high expectations, and we’re close to selling out our production inventory," SiFive's Phil Dworsky explains. "Given the challenge of supply chain issues that we overcame for the first run of these boards (issues that we continue to face), we’ve decided to focus on the next generation SiFive HiFive development systems rather than trying to put together another build of the HiFive Unmatched platform in 2022."

The company has not yet confirmed any details of the Unmatched's successor, nor whether it come in at the same or similar price point. Neither has it detailed the supply chain issues it currently faces, though it's far from alone in the industry there: Many companies are running limited production lines, cancelling devices, or re-spinning to work around components that simply aren't available.

Those interested in finding out more are advised to keep an eye on the SiFive Forum, where Dworsky has promised "news on the next generation HiFive development systems soon."