SiFive pushes development server to take RISC-V into the datacenter
SiFive has launched the BigSky SF-2U870, a rack-mount development server built around its own RISC-V processors, aimed at helping software developers and hyperscalers port workloads to the open-standard chip architecture. Unveiled at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto, the system is designed to speed up datacentre software porting, workload optimisation and validation, and SiFive claims it already has hyperscale and software partners running workloads on deployed units, alongside major system-on-chip vendors. The move mirrors Arm's earlier strategy of seeding development hardware to drive adoption of an alternative architecture in the datacentre, though SiFive still needs a marquee hyperscaler customer to spur mass deployment, much as Amazon did for Arm.
The server packs 32 of SiFive's P870-D cores at 2GHz, 256GB of DDR5 memory, two 7.68TB NVMe SSDs and a 10/25Gbps OCP-compliant network adapter, and SiFive bills it as the world's first enterprise-grade 2U RISC-V rack server, though that claim is hard to verify given China's Sophgo also sells similar hardware. Confirmed backers include Linux vendors Canonical and Red Hat, which has RHEL 10 running on the platform, while SiFive is also working with Nvidia to port its CUDA stack and integrate NVLink Fusion, having already demonstrated CUDA running on BigSky, a first for RISC-V hardware. The BigSky SF-2U870 is available now, though only in limited quantities.
- SiFive launches BigSky RISC-V development server for datacentres
- Red Hat, Canonical and Nvidia CUDA support already confirmed
- Aims to replicate Arm's path into hyperscale server adoption
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RISC-V is an open instruction set: a shared design that chipmakers can use to build processors, much as Arm and x86 provide foundations for other chips. SiFive is a US company that designs RISC-V processor technology. Its server gives developers a way to try datacentre software on RISC-V hardware and find what needs adapting.
Datacentres run the services and computing workloads behind cloud platforms and many online tools. For RISC-V to become a common option there, software makers and large cloud providers need to ensure their programmes work well on it; Linux vendors Canonical and Red Hat are among those supporting the platform. Wider use could give datacentre operators another chip architecture to consider, while requiring changes to software built for other processors.