SiFive Opens Orders for the High-Performance RISC-V HiFive Premier P550 "Early Access Edition"
Finalized hardware comes with an Imagination GPU and faster neural coprocessor — but software support is lagging behind.
SiFive has opened orders for its high-performance quad-core HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V board, though in limited quantities — as it looks to let a select few get hands-on with the hardware ahead of software finalization and a December full launch.
"Since announcing the HiFive Premier P550 boards in April, we've worked closely with Canonical to deliver a best-in-class hardware and software experience," claims SiFive's Martyn Stroeve, head of the company's HiFive board program. "We know many developers are eager to get their hands on this powerful new board, so we decided to release a limited Early Access Edition. At the same time, we are finalizing the software stack for the December release, which we believe will deliver powerful performance and usability for developers. We’re excited to see the innovation and creativity that will come from this."
When SiFive unveiled the HiFive Premier P550 — which is distinct from the HiFive Pro P550, a cancelled design created in partnership with Intel that never made it to market — it promised a high-performance system-on-module (SOM) featuring its out-of-order execution 64-bit P550 RISC-V cores as implemented in an ESWIN EIC7700 system-on-chip. Other features unveiled at the time included a neural processing unit delivering a claimed 13.3 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of compute performance for on-device artificial intelligence and machine learning, up to 32GB of LPDDR5 memory, 128GB of eMMC storage, and a carrier board in a mini-DTX form factor.
Now, the company has revealed additional specifications — though only for an "Early Access Edition" limited to 16GB of RAM. The four P550 cores are, SiFive confirms, clocked at 1.4GHz, there's an Imagination AXM-8-256 GPU, though software support will only be available "before year end," and the promised neural processing unit.
This latter feature, of considerable interest to those working on edge AI, comes with good news and bad news: the good news is that it's been boosted to deliver a claimed 20 TOPS of compute at minimum precision, up from the originally-promised 13.3 TOPS; the bad news is that it's "currently not supported in software," with no word on when that's likely to change.
Other features confirmed for launch include two gigabit Ethernet connections, a separate Ethernet port for remote management, an M.2 E-key slot for Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth radio modules, a full-length four-lane PCI Express Gen. 3 slot, two stacked USB 3.2 Gen. 1 Type-A connectors, additional connectors for three more USB 3.2 Gen. 1 ports on a case's front 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 input/output (GPIO) header with 16 GPIO pins, one UART bus, one quad-SPI bus, and one I2C bus.
On the software side, SiFive is still promising a partnership with Canonical, which will bring Ubuntu Linux 24.04 to the platform — but not right now. Instead, the board will ship with a custom Yocto-based Linux distribution that lacks support for the on-board graphics processor; those who need a GPU are advised to pick up an AMD RX500 or HD6000 PCI Express GPU in the meantime. The upgrade is promised by year's end, which will then be followed by the board's full release with Ubuntu pre-installed and a working GPU.
"The collaboration between ESWIN Computing, SiFive, and Canonical to bring 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 as the premium development board for enthusiasts and developers, helping drive the next wave of cutting-edge RISC-V development. We're proud to see Ubuntu Linux as a key enabler of this innovation and development on the Premier P550 board."
The HiFive Premier P550 won't be the company's last design, either — nor the last to feature its RISC-V cores: "To meet [growing demand for RISC-V], we are creating a new series of HiFive boards offering varying performance levels, capabilities like scalar and vector compute, and at different price points," Stroeve says.
"We're excited to announce our new HiFive Partner strategy and HiFive Approved program, which will help scale our offerings and bring more silicon solutions to market, in collaboration with our ecosystem partners. This builds on our broad product portfolio, and with over 400 design wins we're positioned to bring customers the best RISC-V platforms across more applications and markets."
For those who can't wait, SiFive has partnered with Arrow to sell the "Early Access Edition" at $599 — though there are only a little over 100 units available for early adopters. Additional information is available on the SiFive website.