SiFive announces 32-core RISC-V server for developers

On the stage at the Hot Chips HC’26 conference, RISC-V is getting a rare opportunity to move from the lab into practical server use: SiFive is announcing the BigSky SF-2U870, a developer machine with 32 RISC-V cores and a clock speed of 2 GHz. RISC-V is an open instruction-set architecture, but suitable processors for general-purpose and cloud servers have so far barely been available on the market.

Inside is an unspecified chip with SiFive P870-D cores. The RVA23 extensions are intended to support current Linux systems. SiFive names Ubuntu 26.04 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 and is working with Canonical and Red Hat to optimize the software. AI accelerators using Nvidia’s CUDA API should also be able to run in the server.

The 2U server — a device occupying two rack units — comes with 256 GB of DDR5-5600 memory and four slots for PCIe-5.0 cards, each in the x16 format. This means the BigSky is aimed not at the mass market but at developers who want to test and adapt RISC-V software on a server platform.

This changes access in concrete terms: companies and cloud service providers could obtain a RISC-V machine for Linux and AI development without having to turn to the few Chinese server processors that are unavailable in the United States and Europe. The BigSky cannot be purchased freely, however; SiFive is asking interested companies to get in touch and already expects demand to exceed the number of available devices.

The move therefore remains a beginning, not evidence of an established server platform. Three years ago, a research group still found significant ground to make up in RISC-V processors for servers. Systems with up to 64 RISC-V cores have been announced in China, including by T-Head and SpacemiT, but several of these products have reportedly still not appeared or are not available as server processors. SiFive’s machine thus brings the open architecture closer to real developers’ hands — initially in limited numbers.