The enterprise software ecosystem is lining up behind RISC-V server silicon as SiFive begins delivering a development platform built around its P870-D cores.
The BigSky SF system, now shipping in limited quantities, combines 32 of the company’s P870-D cores running at 2GHz with 256GB of DDR5-5600 memory in a 2U chassis. A 3.84TB U.2 NVMe drive handles storage, while 10/25Gbps OCP 3.0 networking and 64 lanes of PCIe Gen 5 give the box room for double-wide GPUs and other accelerators.
SiFive positions the platform for the porting, tuning and validation work that typically precedes full server deployments. Out of the box it runs Canonical’s Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, and it follows the RVA23 spec now expected of data center-class RISC-V parts.
Chief executive Patrick Little said the launch marks RISC-V’s arrival in enterprise computing, giving customers a testbed for tuning workloads ahead of custom chip projects. Canonical’s silicon alliances director said out-of-the-box Ubuntu support gives customers a known software base for porting work.
Demand is already outstripping supply for the initial run, according to SiFive. The rollout arrives amid a broader push by RISC-V chipmakers and cloud operators to establish an alternative to x86 and Arm for AI workloads.
