StarFive VisionFive 2 Lite is a low-cost, credit card-sized RISC-V SBC powered by a 1.25 GHz JH7110S quad-core 64-bit processor and equipped with 2GB to 8GB RAM, and a microSD card slot for storage.
It’s the little brother of the VisionFive 2 Pico-ITX SBC introduced in 2022, but in a more compact Raspberry Pi-like form factor with an M.2 2242 socket for storage, Gigabit Ethernet, optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, four USB ports, HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI and CSI connector, and a 40-pin GPIO header.
VisionFive 2 Lite specifications:
- SoC – StarFive JH7110S (a low-cost version of the JH7110 clocked up to 1.25 GHz)
- CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (SiFive U74 – RV64GC) processor @ up to 1.25 GHz
- GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan 1.2
- VPU
- 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 video decoder
- 1080p30 H.265 video encoder
- JPEG encoder/decoder
- System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- SPI flash for bootloader
- eMMC flash (reserved) – Note: the eMMC flash version can be made available upon request, but is not offered here.
- NVMe SSD support via M.2 M-Key 2242 (PCIe Gen2 x1) socket
- Video Output
- HDMI 2.0 port
- 2-lane MIPI DSI connector
- Up to 2x independent displays
- Camera I/F – 2-lane MIPI CSI camera connector
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- Optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 3x USB 2.0 ports
- Expansion
- 40-pin GPIO header with up to 28x GPIOs, 3.3V I/O voltage
- M.2 Key-M 2242 socket
- Misc – Recovery button, 2-pin 5V fan header
- Power Supply
- USB-C PD port
- 5V DC via GPIO header (3A+ required)
- Optional PoE via add-on module on 4-pin header
- Dimensions – 85 x 56 mm
The documentation, SDK, and accessory guides will become available later this month on the RVspace Community, and there’s also a documentation page that’s currently a placeholder as the design resources, hardware and software documentation, development and porting guide, and application notes are all marked as “coming soon”.
I’d expect Debian 12/13 and Ubuntu images for the board, as the VisionFive 2 ran Debian 12 beta when I first tested it in February 2023. There was still a lot of software work to do at the time, but since then, two years have passed, so I’m sure great progress has been made on the software front.
StarFive just launched the VisionFive 2 Lite SBC on Kickstarter with a $10,000 funding target. Four different rewards are available:
- 2GB RAM for $19.90 (MSRP: 27.99)
- 2GB RAM + WiFi for $23 (MSRP: 31.99)
- 4GB RAM + WiFi for $30 (MSRP: $42.99)
- 8GB RAM + WiFi for $37 (MSRP: $53.99)
That pricing competes against the Orange Pi RV SBC with the JH7110 SoC at a slightly lower price point, at least during the Kickstarter campaign. Shipping adds 39 HKD to Hong Kong, 55 HKD to China, and about $9 to the rest of the world. Deliveries are scheduled to start in October, shortly after the crowdfunding campaign is over, and it looks like the company has already manufactured a small batch.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress. We also use affiliate links in articles to earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.
It can make an affordable dev machine for whoever wants to develop for RISC-V or validate a port of some existing code to it (which was the original purpose of the VF2 IIRC). But that’s about all I’m seeing as a use case for it, given that for about the same price as the entry-level one, there are already better options such as the more powerful Radxa E20C with eMMC, second LAN and enclosure, which is thus better for a wide range of use cases.
E20c is nice but unfortunately no HDMI
Then in this price range you have the NanoPI R3S LTS. For $28 you have it with the metal enclosure, and for extra $7 you have 32GB eMMC. It features an RK3566 which is a good and very well supported chip.
Same footprint as the https://milkv.io/mars which uses the full JH7110 instead of the JH7110S used here. The Mars also lacks the WiFi and uses an M.2 E-Key rather than the M.2 M-Key socket and has more USB 3.0 ports as opposed to USB 2.0 on this device.
Indeed, but it’s a bit more expensive. I really think that the only value of this board is “low-price quad-core RISC-V”.
M.2e is imho a bad choice for such a board, as it blocks the single lane with WiFi that could be hooked up to usb or spi/sd
It’s not RVA23 though, right? So it can’t run Ubuntu 25.10 or newer.
Linux is not only buntu
Finally an affordable riscv dev board that allows a start without a huge commitment