BeagleV: An Affordable RISC-V Computer with Linux Support

BeagleBoard.org and Seeed Studio have announced a partnership with StarFive to launch the most affordable Linux-capable RISC-V single-board computer. There are many single-board computers about, but few are powerful and have RISC-V processors. BeagleV is the Example for that. It has SiFive U74 processor. The SiFive U74 has two cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and 2 MB of L2 cache, which compete with the performance that something like an ARM Cortex-A55 processor.

What’s RISC-V?

Most single-board computers on the market (with Linux support) are ARM-based. A few use x86-64 chips, and an even-fewer few MIPS. The BeagleV uses a RISC-V processor.

RISC-V (pronounced ‘risk-five’) is an open source instruction set architecture (ISA) free of patents and devoice of licensing fees. The source code for it is available under a BSD license, meaning anyone can create and tinker with the RISC-V designs to meet their needs.

First introduced in 2010, RISC-V is a relatively ‘new’ tech, and it’s not the most ‘powerful’. But its power efficiency and openness has led to it being used in embedded devices.

The BeagleV will be compatible with freeRTOS and Linux distributions like Debian and Fedora, according to the manufacturer. The board itself has been developed in partnership between BeagleBoard, StarFive Seeed Studio, as the BeagleV website outlines. The first BeagleV boards should begin shipping in March, although the manufacturer is currently only accepting applications to order a board.

The system is supplied with 8GB of LPDDR4 memory, as two four-gig modules, though a cheaper variant with 4GB is also planned. The board includes four USB 3.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, 3.5mm audio jack, 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi-style general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header.

Hardware Overview

Specifications