After SpacemiT officially launched the K3 Pico-ITX SBC, and the K3 chip entered volume production, an Edge AI mini PC, and a laptop motherboard (for Framework 13) have been released. To add to the list, Firefly has recently launched the CSC2-N48SPK3, a massive 2U rack-mounted server based on multiple SpacemiT K3 SoCs designed to bring RISC-V computing power to enterprise racks.
While consumer devices and modular laptops are great for developers, large-scale server-side AI workloads require more powerful hardware. The CSC2-N48SPK3 addresses this with up to 48 SpacemiT K3 RISC-V compute nodes, each with an octa-core X100 SoC delivering up to 60 TOPS (Sparse) AI performance, up to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128 GB UFS storage, and an optional NVMe SSD. To manage all of these nodes, Firefly relies on a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Arm processor as the central control node.
Firefly CSC2-N48SPK3 specifications:
- Server Form Factor – 2U rack-mounted 48 Node high-density server
- Architecture
- 48 distributed computing nodes + 1 control node
- Total AI Performance – 2880 TOPS (60 TOPS x 48, INT4)
- Compute Nodes (x48)
- SoC – SpacemiT Key Stone K3 8-core X100M 64-bit RISC-V AI processor; up to 2.4GHz
- Performance – 130K DMIPS general-purpose computing power per node; single-core SpecInt2006 exceeds 9.0/GHz
- Compliance – Fully complies with RVA23 Profile
- Memory – Up to 32GB LPDDR5 per node (available in 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB)
- Storage – 128GB UFS 2.2 per node
- Control Node / BMC (x1)
- Based on Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A53 processor @ up to 2.4GHz
- RJ45 Console port (BMC debug serial port, 115200 baud rate)
- Storage – 48x M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD slots (optional)
- Display
- HDMI out up to 1080p60 for BMC management
- Touch display on the front panel for real-time device info (temperature, fan speed, network IP, etc.)
- Networking
- 4x 10GbE SFP+ cages
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port (MGMT, used as BMC management network)
- USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports (lower port supports OTG for BMC upgrades via USB flash drive)
- Misc –
- Reset, Power, and Restart BMC buttons
- 12x high-speed cooling fans
- Power – 2x AC redundant power supplies (hot-swappable)
- Dimensions – 724.0 x 430.0 x 88.8 mm
- Weight – 23.1 kg (net), 25.3 kg (with packaging)
The server supports the RVV vector extension, native FP8 inference, and multimodal acceleration, delivering over 10 tokens/s on local 30B parameter models. It ships with a pre-installed Linux distribution and supports build systems like Open Build Service and Koji. Firefly claims it is much faster than emulation, with single-node performance up to 7× higher than x86 QEMU. In one example, the RISC-V K3 node compiled the Linux 6.18 kernel in 22 minutes and 28 seconds, compared to 2 hours and 50 minutes on an Intel Xeon Gold 6548Y+ running QEMU.
On the hardware side, the storage options are very extensive. The board includes 48 M.2 PCIe slots, so each compute node can have its own dedicated NVMe SSD. If you use 8TB or 16TB SSDs, that adds up to as much as 48 × 16TB, or 768TB of storage. It also supports security and virtualization, including three-level privilege modes (M/S/U), built-in protection against Specter and Meltdown attacks, and full hardware virtualization using RVH1.0, RV AIA, and RV IOMMU extensions. Previously, we have written about several interesting Arm-based rackmount servers, including Firefly’s own Cluster Server R2 and Huawei Taishan X6000 V2 Server, both of which are 2U servers.
The Firefly CSC2-N48SPK3 RISC-V server is now available, but as expected for enterprise rackmount hardware, it is quite expensive. Pricing on the official Firefly store starts at $38,829 for a configuration with 48 compute nodes, each with 16GB RAM and 128GB storage, along with an 8GB RK3588 control node. A version with 32GB RAM per node is also available. More details are available on the product page.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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