SiFive, Inc., the gold standard for RISC-V computing, today announced the availability of its state-of-the-art HiFive Premier P550 development board. An initial pre-release batch of 100 Yocto Linux-based boards, called the "Early Access Edition," is available for purchase through Arrow Electronics. 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 1.4 GHz, 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 is showcasing the HiFive Premier P550 as part of its sponsorship of the Developer Zone at the RISC-V Summit North America, taking place Oct. 21-23 in Santa Clara, Calif. SiFive will show the new board along with the popular HiFive Unmatched Rev. B, and share 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.

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
• 16-32 GB LPDDR5 / 128 GB eMMC
• Robust PC connectivity: SATA, PCIe, SD, M.2, USB 3
• Integrated Imagination GPU and ESWIN NPU

Other Features and Specifications:
SOC

• EIC7700X SoC with SiFive quad-core P550 CPU cores featuring:
• Imagination AXM-8-256 onboard GPU (Enabled and supported via Ubuntu software update)
• HW accelerated video encoding: up to 8K@25 FPS (currently not supported in software)
• HW accelerated video decoding: up to 8K@50 FPS (currently not supported in software)
• HW accelerated AI NPU with ~20 TOPS (currently not supported in software)

IO

• 1x SATA 3 connector (6 Gb/s)
• 1x microSD card connector
• 2x 10/100/1000 Ethernet RJ45 connectors
• 1x Ethernet RJ45 connector for remote board management using dedicated MCU
• 1x M.2 Key E connector for Wi-Fi / Bluetooth module (Interface via SDIO / UART)
• 1x PCI Express Gen 3 x4 via a PCIe x16 slot
• 2x Stacked USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Connectors
• 1x USB 19-pin male connector to support 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 connectors on front panel
• 1x USB type-E connector to support 1 USB 3.2 Gen Type-C connector on front panel
• 1x JTAG Header
• 1x USB Type-C (USB2 only) connector for debug UART / JTAG support through FT4232H
• 1x HDMI 2.0 connector
• Mini-ITX case compliant Front Panel Connector
• 1x CR1220 battery holder for Real Time Clock
• 3x fan headers
• 1x header for audio interface (front panel stereo line-out and line-in / microphone signals)
• 1x rear panel stereo jack with microphone input
• 1x 40-pin Peripheral I/O Header (1 I2C, 1x QSPI, 1x UART, 16x GPIO)

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