An initial pre-release batch of 100 Yocto Linux-based boards, called the "Early Access Edition," was available for purchase through Arrow Electronics and sold out already as of today, now 2 weeks later. A broader release with Canonical Ubuntu 24.04 pre-installed is scheduled for December, providing developers with an unparalleled out-of-box experience.

“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,” said Martyn Stroeve, Head of the HiFive board program at SiFive. “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.”

The quad-core SiFive Performance™ P550 processor, running at 1.4GHz, makes the HiFive Premier P550 the highest-performing RISC-V development board available. Its out-of-order core architecture delivers exceptional compute density and performance, all within an energy-efficient footprint.

SiFive showcased the HiFive Premier P550 as part of its sponsorship of the Developer Zone at the RISC-V Summit North America, where several partners also showed off the Premier P550 board including Imagination and Canonical. 

The board follows the popular HiFive Unmatched Rev. B (which is on sale right now at Mouser.com), and at the show SiFIve’s Stroeve shared insights into its long-term board strategy, which spans from embedded systems to advanced AI applications. SiFive provides comprehensive support for its RISC-V development boards, including documentation, development kits, toolchains, utilities, and software ecosystem solutions.

What might not have been obvious from the release is that the board is effectively an embedded RISC-V PC. This is  the fastest performing RISC-V dev board in market.

What is that important

The developer board is enabling potential customers and academia to start working on  RISC-V based projects in a very short time. The process is accelerated and the board is, plug and play and ready to go in a short time. Boards are crucial for simplicity of development process allowing developers to test their software in actual functional and performant silicon.  

Technical Features 

The ESWIN EIC7700X SoC found on the board features a high performance 64-bit three-issue, out-of-order, SiFive RISC-V P550 core complex configured with four P550 cores, 256KB L2 cache and 4MB L3 cache. The SoC features a 2D/3D GPU, hardware video encoder/decoder, NPU, DSP, MIPI DSI, a security subsystem, an integrated high speed DDR5 memory controller, root complex PCI Express Gen 3 x4 and standard peripherals. 

Bo Wang, Vice Chairman of ESWIN Computing, stated: “We are excited to see ESWIN’s high-performance EIC7700X SoC powering the HiFive Premier P550, enabling developers to fully realize the advantages of RISC-V. We look forward to our continued partnership with SiFive in bringing this board to market and driving innovation in RISC-V design.”

“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,” said Gordan Markuš, Director of Silicon Alliances at Canonical. “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.”

Beyond the HiFive Premier P550, SiFive is committed to addressing the growing demand for RISC-V silicon. “To meet this need, we are creating a new series of HiFive boards offering varying performance levels, capabilities like scalar and vector compute, and at different price points,” said Stroeve. “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.”

HiFive Premier P550 Key Features:

• The world’s highest performing commercially available RISC-V CPU- SiFive P550
• 16-32GB LPDDR5 / 128GB eMMC
• Robust PC connectivity: SATA, PCIe, SD, M.2, USB 3
• Integrated Imagination GPU and ESWIN NPU

Orders for the HiFive Premier P550 can be placed on Arrow.com. For more information, visit: HiFive Premier P550.

The announcement is a step in the right direction especially now when the competition between the legacy X86 and ARM is heating up and some important legal battles are taking place. With that in mind, an ecosystem alternative is always welcome and the board is a powerful way for developers to get started or accelerate their programs.