Last year, we noted three upcoming high-performance RISC-V SoCs to watch out for: Zhihe A210, SpacemiT K3, and UltraRISC UR-DP1000. The K3 has already been launched, and I’ll work on the K3-Pico-ITX SBC/mini PC review this coming weekend, while the UR-DP1000 is (still?) expected on the Milk-V Titan motherboard. However, we did not have that many details about the Zhihe A210 so far.
This has now changed since documentation has surfaced for the Zhihe A210 and a development kit (A210 SODIMM V2) based on a carrier board and a system-on-module itself powered by the octa-core RISC-V processor. Let’s have a look at both.
Zhihe A210 octa-core RISC-V SoC
Zhihe A210 specifications:
- CPU – Octa-core RISC-V RV64GCV processor
- 4x 64-bit RISC-V C920 cores @ up to 2.3 GHz with 64 KB I Cache and 64 KB D Cache for each core, 1 MB L2 cache; note: 1.9 GHz is also shown for this cluster, depending on where we look in the docs.
- 4x 64-bit RISC-V C908 cores @ up to 1.9 GHz with 32 KB I Cache and 32 KB D Cache for each core, 512 KB L2 cache
RVA23 Profile compliant[Apparently not, the previous announcement in Chinese was about the next-gen A600 getting RVA23 profile. See comments section]
- GPU
- Unnamed 3D GPU, potentially IMG BXM-4-64
- Up to 50.34 GFLOPS
- 3D graphics acceleration engine: 3.14 GPixel @ 786MHz
- Support for Vulkan 1.1/1.2, OpenCL 1.1/1.2/2.0, and OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0/3.1/3.2
- 2D graphics accelerator
- Unnamed 3D GPU, potentially IMG BXM-4-64
- VPU
- Decoding
- Up to 4Kp120 H.265/HEVC, H.264/AVC, AV1
- Up to 4Kp60 VP9, AVS2
- Up to 1080p60 VP6/7/8/AVS/AVS+/VC1/MPEG4
- (M)JPEG decoding up to 1080p @ 576 FPS
- Encoding
- 4Kp60 H.265/HEC, H.264/AVC
- (M)JPEG encoding up to 1080p @ 312 FPS
- Decoding
- ISP – Up to 12MP resolution
- AI accelerator
- 12 TOPS (INT8) neural processing unit with supports for INT4, INT8, INT16, FP8, FP16 and BF16
- DeepSeek-7B can reach 8 tokens/s; “4-die multi-chip cascading DeepSeek-7B can reach 25 tokens/s”
- Supported frameworks: TensorFlow, Caffe, HuggingFace, ONNX, etc.
- Memory – Up to 16GB; 2x 32-bit LPDDR4/LPDDR4X up to 4266 MT/s
- Storage
- eMMC 5.1
- SPI NOR/NAND flash
- SD 3.0
- NVMe or SATA interface via PCIe 3.1/SATA 3.0 combo interface (see PCIe section below for details)
- Display Interfaces
- HDMI 1.4/2.0 up to 4Kp60 with HDCP 1.4 support
- 4-lane MIPI DSI up to 4Kp60
- DisplayPort up to 4Kp60 via USB3.1/DP 1.4/eDP1.5 combo interface (see USB section for details)
- Camera Interface – 4-lane MIPI CSI2 D-PHY interface, with flexible lane configurations of 2x 4-lane, 4x 2-lane, 1x 4-lane + 2x 2-lane
- Audio
- 8-lane I2S/PCM interface (Rx/Tx); up to 384kHz sample rate, 16-/24-/32-bit resolution
- 3x 2-lane I2S/PCM interface (Tx/Tx); up to 384kHz sample rate, 16-/24-/32-bit resolution
- PDM interface for up to 8 channels; up to 192kHz sample rate, 16-/24-bit resolution
- TDM/PCM interface up to 8 channels; up to 192kHz sample rate, 16-/24-/32-bit resolution
- Networking – 2x GMAC ports with RGMII/RMII support
- USB
- USB3.1/DP 1.4/eDP1.5 combo interface (host or device)
- USB 3.1 output via a Type-C interface
- USB 3.1 + 2-lane DP via a Type-C interface
- USB 2.0 + 4-lane DP output via a Type-C interface
- USB 3.1 output via a Type-A interface + 2-lane DP/eDP interface
- USB 2.0 output via a Type-A/C interface +4-lane DP/eDP interface
- 2x USB 2.0 host/device interfaces
- USB3.1/DP 1.4/eDP1.5 combo interface (host or device)
- PCIe – PCIe 3.1/SATA 3.0 combo interface configurable as follows:
- 1x PCIe x4 RC/EP
- 1x PCIe x2 RC/EP+ 1x PCIe x1 RC
- 1x PCIe x2 RC/EP + 2x SATA
- 1x PCIe x1 RC/EP + 1x PCIe x1 RC + 2x SATA
- Other Peripherals
- Analog I/O – 4-channel ADC
- 10x UART ports
- 10x I2C ports
- 2x QSPI ports and 2x SPI ports
- 3x 6-channel PWM ports
- 3x CAN interfaces, supporting CAN-FD
- Integrated JTAG, GPIO, etc.
- Security
- Dual-layer security: TEE+REE
- Encryption algorithms
- Symmetrical algorithms: AES, TDES, DES, SM4
- Asymmetrical algorithms: RSA1024/2048/3072/4096, SM2
- HASH algorithms: SHA-1/224/256/384/512, SM3, MD5
- Hardware random number generator (HRNG)
- Hardware-enforced isolation
- Secure boot
- Power Management Unit – RISC-V E902 core @ 100 MHz with RTC, POR, Watchdog…
- Operating voltage
- Voltage for core: 0.8V
- Voltage for IO: 1.8V
- Voltage for LPDDR4 IO: 1.1V
- Voltage for LPDDR4x IO: 0.6V
- Package – 25×25 mm; 1373-ball FC-BGA
A210 SODIMM V2 Development Board
A210 SODIMM V2 board specifications:
- Core board
- SoC – Zhihe A210 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC as described above
- System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB LPDDR4x up to 4266Mbps
- Storage – eMMC flash
- Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet PHY
- Host interface – 260-pin SO-DIMM edge connector exposing the A210’s I/Os
- Power
- 5V DC input voltage
- 2x PMIC chips
- Dimensions – 69.94 x 59.66mm
- Carrier board (V2)
- Storage – M.2 Key-B SATA port (
- Video Output
- HDMI 2.0 port
- MIPI DSI connector
- DisplayPort via USB-C port
- Camera
- 2-lane MIPI-CSI Board-to-Board (B2B) connector
- 4-lane MIPI-CSI Board-to-Board (B2B) connector
- Audio – 3.5mm audio jack
- Networking
- 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth V5.0 /4.2 support.
- USB
- USB 3.1 Type-C port with DP Alt mode support
- USB 2.0 Type-A port for flashing
- USB 2.0 Type-A port
- Expansion
- Mini PCIe socket (PCIe/USB)
- M.2 Key-B SATA port
- 20-pin 2.54mm pitch QSPI and GPIO header
- 20-pin 2.54mm pitch UART and GPIO header
- Misc
- Power, Reset, and Flash buttons
- 4-pin Debug UART header
- PCIe RC/EP mode switch
- 5V fan header
- Power Supply – 12V DC
- Dimensions – TBD
The system-on-module and development board are supported by a Linux SDK with buildroot and Debian images. The documentation has many more details about the hardware and basic instructions to get started with the SDK using a Docker image, as well as multimedia (video decode/encode) tutorials, and steps to use the TORQ-Toolkit to perform model conversion and deploy the AI models to the chip.
The development kit is sold for $334.33 on AliExpress as the “Sipeed ZHIHE A210 RISC-V development platform” in 8GB/64GB configuration, but note that the seller (chipboard store) often marks up the price a fair bit. If it’s indeed from Sipeed, it could soon be sold for about $200 or less.
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.
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Are you sure that is actually RVA23? I see no mention of that in the datasheet, and the cores are at best RVA22
That part is based on last year’s announcement: https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/07/22/three-high-performance-risc-v-processors-to-watch-in-h2-2025-ultrarisc-ur-dp1000-zizhe-a210-and-spacemit-k3/#zizhe-a230
Have they changed the RISC-V cores used?
I replied earlier but it doesn’t seem to have gone through. As far as I can find the C920v2 is RVA22, and while there is mention of a V3 and V4, they have no public datasheets. the consensus on Reddit is that the A210 is a RVA22 SOC.
Upon further info it appears that the C920v3 may be “compatible” with RVA23, as per the user manual. Not clear what version of the C920 the A210 uses, and I’ve not been able to find any C908 that supports RVA23 (it’s only RVA22), so far..
I’ll go with Zhihe’s 2025 official announcement about RVA23 for now.
It’s in Chinese, but two different AI translations told me A210 is RVA23.
I can read Chinese and I’m pretty much sure you read it wrong.
It’s their next gen A600 will use RVA23 compliant cores.
I think Zhihe never said A210 is RVA23 compatible.
Thanks. I’ll update the post.
This should be one of the first chips with AV2 decoding support then?
Also, officially, there’s no such thing as HDMI 2.0.
Sorry, typo. It’s AVS2 instead of AV2.
When did they kill HDMI 2.0?
Really hope that’s not another Powervr chip in there. Broader RISC-V adoption has been held back all these years because of those GPU. If Imagination had brought working graphics driver to mainline linux from day one like Pi did with their Broadcom video, more regular users would have bought RISC-V boards to replace the the Pi Zeros for general purpose loads. The Vision Five still has no mainline linux support for working video even after all these years. What a waste, all that lost potential.
Options are limited. I’ve never seen a RISC-V SoC with an Arm Mali GPU, so it’s probably never going to happen. That means either a PowerVR or a Vivante GPU, unless there’s a new embedded GPU developed in China.
At least the support for these PowerVR GPUs is now arriving in mesa. So fingers crossed, this will be less of a problem in the future.
There is. IMG BXM-4-64 MC1.