RISC-V single-board computer with RVA23 chip for new Linux distributions
SpacemiT delivers one of the first RISC-V processors with RVA23 technology. The eight-core K3 promises decent performance but costs more than a Raspberry Pi 5.
Development board with the RVA23-compatible RISC-V SoC SpacemiT K3.
(Image: SpacemiT)
Basically, Linux has long been running on processors with RISC-V processor cores. But new Linux distributions and especially Ubuntu 25.10 require RISC-V chips with vector processing units and virtualization functions that meet the RVA23 specification. The SpacemiT K3 is one of the first available chips with these features.
SpacemiT had already announced the RVA23-compatible CPU cores named X100 in early 2025, but for a significantly more expensive processor named VitalStone V100 with 64 cores.
Now SpacemiT is delivering first samples of the eight-core K3, which also includes an AI accelerator with eight A100 units, said to deliver up to 60 TOPS.
A 3D graphics core, not described in detail by SpacemiT, is also integrated, supporting OpenGL ES, Vulkan, and OpenCL. According to Milk-V (see below), it is an Imagination Technology IMG BXM-4-64-MC1.
As I/O interfaces, eight PCIe 3.0 lanes, USB 3.0, 1 Gbit/s Ethernet, as well as eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.2, SDIO, I2C, SPI, I2S, and up to 132 GPIOs are available.
The CPU cores clock at up to 2.4 GHz, each have 64 KB L1 caches for instructions and data, and a total of 8 MB L2 cache. Four RISC-V cores each share 4 MB of L2 cache. SpacemiT specifies the Thermal Design Power (TDP) as 15 to 25 watts, which is why the K3 requires a fan cooler.
Canonical announces in its own blog that Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon), planned for April 2026, will run on the SpacemiT K3.
The Ubuntu developers again confirm that Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will remain for the SpacemiT K1, which is found under the designation Ky K1, for example, on the Orange Pi RV2. The K1 also computes on the Banana Pi BPI-F3.
(Image:Â SpacemiT)
Comparison with ARM Cortex-A76
SpacemiT compares the performance of the X100 cores with the ARM core Cortex-A76 announced in 2018, which, for example, runs in the Broadcom BCM2712 of the Raspberry Pi 5.
The SpacemiT K3 has a memory controller with two 32-bit channels for LPDDR4X-4266 or LPDDR5-6400, which is said to transfer up to 51 GByte/s. A maximum of 32 GByte of currently unfortunately costly RAM is possible.
Videos by heise
Development boards on the way
SpacemiT equips the „Core Module“ (CoM) K3 CoM260 with the K3 and 8, 16, or 32 GByte LPDDR5-6400. The price is not yet known.
The Banana Pi and Milk-V brands, in turn, offer development boards with the SpacemiT K3 CoM260. These bring out the connections of the CoM to sockets and connectors and supply it with power.
The Carrier Board Banana Pi BPI-SM10 offers two M.2 slots, a GPIO header, various MIPI connectors, four USB-A 3.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2, RJ45 for Gigabit Ethernet, and USB-C.
(Image:Â Banana Pi)
Milk-V has designed the Jupiter 2 for the SpacemiT K3 CoM260. The equipment is similar to the Banana Pi BPI-SM10.
Milk-V sells the Jupiter 2 Dev Kit through the Arace trading platform in Hong Kong. The version with 8 GByte RAM (DK041-D8) is said to cost 251 Euros there, plus shipping, import VAT, and customs duties. However, all variants are sold out. Furthermore, confusingly, there are several variants of the Jupiter 2 board, including one with the Radxa C200 module, which houses an Nvidia Jetson Orin.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(ciw)
