SiFive launches first RISC-V data centre server

Chip company and RISC-V specialist SiFive has launched its first development server specifically built for data centres, laying further groundwork for large-scale deployment of the open source architecture.

IP company SiFive, a founding member of the instruction set architecture (ISA), revealed its BigSky SF-2U870 platform during the Hot Chip conference this week, describing it as the "world's first enterprise-grade, rackable 2U RISC-V server".

CEO Patrick Little said: "With BigSky, we have delivered a powerful turnkey server platform designed to accelerate development of customer datacenter workloads and software on the RISC-V open standard... RISC-V in the datacenter isn't a distant aspiration anymore, it is happening right now."

The RISC-V ISA was developed in the early 2010s as an open source alternative to the proprietary x86 and ARM ISAs and holds a roughly 15% share of the SoC market according to the SHD Group, but its adoption is dependent on developers and manufacturers adapting software and hardware to the ISA.

BigSky's technical details