risc-v News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Milk-V Titan – A $329 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard with a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot

We first noted the UltraRISC UR-DP1000-powered Milk-V Titan mini-ITX motherboard when we wrote an article about three high-performance RISC-V processors to watch in H2 2025. There have been some delays, as there often are, but the Titan board finally appears to be in stock, so it’s probably a good time to have a closer look. Powered by a 2 GHz UR-DP1000 octa-core RISC-V CPU, the Titan mini-ITX motherboard supports up to 64GB DIMM memory and M.2 NVMe storage (PCIe Gen4 x4), and features a PCIe Gen4 x16 slot for a graphics card or other expansion, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports, a BMC, and more. Milk-V Titan specifications: CPU – UltraRISC UR-DP1000 8x 64-bit RISC-V UR-CP100 “RV64GCBHX” cores up to 2.0 GHz Two 4x core cluster design with 4MB L3 cache each, and a total of 16MB cache. Fully RVA22 compliant, and “Compliant with RVA23 excluding V extension.” Supports Hardware […]

January 8, 2026January 9, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

MUSE Book laptop review – Testing an octa-core RISC-V Linux laptop in 2026

SpacemiT sent me a sample of the MUSE Book RISC-V Linux laptop for review. It’s based on the SpacemiT K1/M1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC, ships with up to 16 GB of RAM, eMMC flash and/or NVMe SSD, and features a 14.1-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, WiFi 6 connectivity, a few USB ports, and more. I won’t go through all the hardware specifications since Leo already did that when he wrote about the MUSE Book Laptop in April 2024, along with a teardown, and additional details about the SpacemiT K1/M1 SoC. I’ll still do an unboxing and quickly check the hardware, but I’ll focus on the software part to show the progress with Bianbu OS 2.3 (Ubuntu 24.04-based) on RISC-V hardware, as I just did for the low-end StarFive JH7110S-based VisionFive 2 Lite SBC. It’s quite a long review, so if you are short on time, you can jump directly […]

January 4, 2026January 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Allwinner V861 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V AI Camera SiP features 128MB DDR3L, 4K H.265/H.264 video encoder

Allwinner V861 is a new dual-core 32-bit/64-bit RISC-V C907 system-in-package (SiP) with 128MB on-chip DDR3L and designed for 4K AI camera applications with a 1 TOPS AI NPU. The chip also features a 32-bit RISC-V E907 low-power core, a 4Kp25 H.264/H.265 video encoder, a 1080p60 JPEG video decoder and encoder, MIPI CSI and parallel camera interfaces, audio codec with input and output interfaces, Fast Ethernet, USB 2.0, and a range of digital and analog I/Os. Allwinner V861M3-XXX specifications: CPU Dual-Core RISC-V XuanTie C907 (RV64GCBV/RV32GGCBV) clocked up to 1.4GHz with RVV 1.0 extensions Single-core RISC-V XuanTie E907 (RV32IMAFC) clocked up to 800MHz VPU Video Encoder H.264/H.265 up to 4K @ 25fps (M)JPEG up to 8192×8192 Video Decoder – (M)JPEG up to 1080p60 AI accelerator – 1 TOPS (INT8) NPU dubbed “AI-ISP 2.0” Memory 128MB DDR3/DDR3L (SiP) “SQPI” PSRAM interface Storage QSPI flash eMMC 4.41 SDIO 2.0/3.0 Display – SPI interface Camera […]

January 3, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

WCH CH32H417 dual-core RISC-V MCU offers USB 3.0, 500MB/s UHSIF, and Fast Ethernet interfaces

WCH CH32H417 is a high-performance dual-core RISC-V microcontroller clocked at up to 400 MHz with up to 960 KB flash, 896KB SRAM, and a range of interfaces, including a 5 Gbps USB 3.0 Host/Device SuperSpeed interface. Other notable features include a 500MB/s UHSIF (Universal High Speed Interface), 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC and PHY, a SerDes high-speed isolated transceiver, a USB 2.0 High-Speed Host/Device, a USB 2.0 OTG Full Speed, USB PD support, and Display and Camera interfaces. The CH32H417 also offers the usual low-speed I/Os (95x GPIO, SPI…) and analog inputs and outputs (ADC/DAC). WCH CH32H417 CH32H417 specifications: Cores (Coremark: 5.73/MHz) QingKe RISC-V5F up to 400 MHz QinKe RISC-V3F up to 144 MHz GPU – Graphics Processing Hardware Accelerator GPHA Memory – 896KB SRAM Storage 960KB Flash 200MHz dual-edge SD/EMMC controller (SDMMC) SDIO master/slave interface with support for SD/SDIO/MMC Flexible Storage Controller FMC Display – DCT-TFT Display Controller LTDC Camera I/F […]

December 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Year 2025 in Review, CNX Software stats, and looking ahead to 2026

Time for the last post of 2025, as the year is almost over. I’ll look back at key developments and notable products launched in 2025, share some CNX Software website traffic statistics, and look ahead to 2026. Year 2025 in Review After 22 product releases in 2024, Raspberry Pi calmed down a little bit in 2025, and the highlights of the year included the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard, the 5-inch variant of the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, and a Raspberry Pi 5 1GB RAM. What didn’t quite stop were the accessories from third parties for Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico boards. The most exciting Arm SoC release of 2025 was probably the 12-core CIX P1 Armv9 SoC found in Radxa Orion O6 SBC, MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm mini PC, and Orange Pi 6 Plus board, but while performance was fine, it was overhyped in 2024, and software […]

December 31, 2025January 4, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

VisionFive 2 Lite SBC Review – Ubuntu 24.04 on a low-cost RISC-V SBC in 2026

VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC Ubuntu Review 2026

StarFive has sent me a sample of the VisionFive 2 Lite RISC-V SBC for review. It’s a low-cost credit card-sized board based on the StarFive JH7110S quad-core RISC-V SBC and designed to get started with Linux RISC-V on the cheap. When I first tested the earlier VisionFive 2 SBC with a StarFive JH7110 RISC-V SoC in February 2023, I didn’t call it a review, but rather a hands-on experience, since, at the time, many features still didn’t work properly. Almost three years have passed since then, so reviewing the VisionFive 2 Lite SBC with Ubuntu 24.04 will allow us to see how much progress has been made on the software side. If you are in a rush, you can jump to the what works, what doesn’t section. VisionFive 2 Lite unboxing I received the board in a plastic box with a cover reading “VisionFive 2 Lite Your Gateway to RISC-V”. […]

December 31, 2025 by Kumpee Teeravech - No Comments

DFRobot HUSKYLENS 2 AI camera review – From built-in AI samples to training a custom model to detect elephants

Hello, today I am going to review the HUSKYLENS 2, released in October 2025. It is the next generation of HUSKYLENS, an AI vision sensor equipped with a Kendryte K230 dual-core RISC-V SoC with a 6 TOPS AI accelerator and a 2.4-inch IPS touchscreen. The device runs machine vision algorithms fully on-device, providing fast and low-latency performance, and includes more than 15 built-in AI models. HUSKYLENS 2 also supports deploying custom-trained models, including integration with Large Language Models (LLMs) via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) service. In addition, it is compatible with various microcontrollers, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, through UART or I2C communication interfaces. HUSKYLENS 2 unboxing The manufacturer sent the HUSKYLENS 2 module and the Microscope Lens separately. Both parcels were shipped from Chengdu, China, and arrived at my office in Chanthaburi, Thailand, in about one week. The parcels were packed in standard cardboard boxes and arrived […]

December 28, 2025December 27, 2025 by Debashis Das - 10 Comments

Bit-Brick Cluster K1 – A 4-slot RISC-V cluster board for SpacemiT K1-based SSOM-K1 system-on-module

Bit-Brick Cluster K1 is a cluster board designed to mount up to four SSOM-K1 system-on-modules powered by a SpacemiT K1 octa-core RISC-V processor. The board targets developers, researchers, and system integrators working on edge computing, AI workloads, and high-performance embedded applications. The Cluster K1 relies on an onboard Gigabit Ethernet switch chip to interconnect four core boards, giving each board an independent network port for fast and stable inter-node communication with automatic IP assignment. Other key features include USB 3.0/2.0 ports, HDMI output (master slot only), a USB Type-C debug port, an M.2 M-Key slot for storage expansion, a 3-pin fan power header, and dedicated power, reset, and download buttons. The SSOM-K1 system-on-module features a K1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V CPU with vector extension and AI acceleration up to 2 TOPS. It ships with up to 8GB dual-channel LPDDR4X memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, and offers dual Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4 […]