SiFive announces new high-performance RISC-V data center processor for intense AI workloads

SiFive Performance P870-D brings high compute density and scalability to data centers, automotive and embedded systems

SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 14, 2024 – SiFive, Inc., the gold standard in RISC-V computing, announces the launch of the new SiFive Performance P870-D data center processor to meet customer demand for highly parallel infrastructure workloads, including video streaming, storage, and networking equipment . Combined with products in the SiFive Intelligence family, data center architects can also build an extremely high-performance, energy-efficient computing subsystem for AI-driven applications.

The P870-D builds on the success of the P870 by supporting the open AMBA CHI protocol, giving customers greater flexibility in scaling the number of clusters. This scalability allows customers to maximize performance while minimizing power consumption. By leveraging the standard CHI bus, the P870-D allows SiFive customers to scale up to 256 cores while using industry standard protocols such as Compute Express Link (CXL) and CHI chip-to-chip (C2C), enabling coherence for high core count heterogeneous SoCs and chiplet configurations.

The P870-D processor enables the creation of infrastructure SoCs with higher compute density. Compared to competitors, SiFive offers higher performance per watt for workloads that require multiple compute tasks to be performed in parallel. As a result, SiFive's P870-D offers an advantage in total cost of ownership, which is particularly important as the industry seeks to reduce the cost of training AI models. In addition, the power efficiency of the P870-D is also in line with the industry's growing focus on sustainability.

"SiFive is bringing a new, modern approach to the AI ​​era with our broad portfolio of RISC-V solutions. The new P870-D enhances our proven Performance architecture to deliver unprecedented performance, flexibility, and scalability," said John Ronco, SiFive senior vice president of products . "SiFive's complete solution, including software, IOMMU, interrupt controllers and other uncore blocks, coupled with our intelligent processors for dedicated AI compute, enables SiFive customers to achieve the most effective performance/watt for AI and data center workloads."

“Data center architects will increasingly focus on energy efficiency in the future; this is a significant differentiator for RISC-V and why we expect the architecture to play a major role in the continued growth of high-performance data center processors,” said Edward Wilford, senior research director at Omdia. “We predict that by 2030, more energy-efficient data center processors will account for more than 40% of the total market, driven by the growth of open source software and open standards architectures.”

SiFive is working closely with multiple ecosystem partners to further simplify the development of complete systems. For example, Arteris, as a leading partner of SiFive, provides simulation-ready reference designs based on X280 and P870-D processors as the first products of the verification platform. By integrating SiFive's RISC-V processors with Arteris' on-chip interconnect network (NoC) IP, SiFive's customers can accelerate development and bring products to market faster.

“On-chip interconnect network IP significantly simplifies the process of building complex multi-core heterogeneous SoCs with the lowest latency and high bandwidth for AI workloads,” said Michal Siwinski, Chief Marketing Officer at Arteris . “We are pleased to continue our collaboration with SiFive to enable the ecosystem to create high-performance, low-power RISC-V systems on time and on budget while reducing risk.”

SiFive has also added reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features to the P870-D. These RAS features are designed to detect errors before problems occur and protect data integrity, helping to prevent downtime and ensure overall system reliability. In addition, the P870-D includes a distributed and scalable IOMMU for accelerating the IO of virtualized devices, which is critical to addressing the latest functional safety and security requirements.

Key Features:

● Provide solutions based on computing needs and support expansion to 256 cores.

● Fully compatible with RVA23 profiles, enabling system developers to leverage a broad range of operating systems, tool chains and application software frameworks, thereby accelerating time to market while reducing project risk and development costs.

●Support RISC-V Sv57 extension, enabling 57-bit virtual address space support.

●Supports 4 CHI ports/cluster and wider links for multiple peripheral and storage device ports.

●Integrated interrupt controller compliant with Advanced Interrupt Architecture (AIA) standard, supporting message signaled interrupt (MSI) and virtualization.

From a software perspective, customers creating data center platforms are leveraging a strong combination of open source and first-party software. Many foundational open source software elements already exist in the RISC-V ecosystem, and momentum is accelerating thanks to community collaboration like the RISE project. The P870-D processor complies with the platform and profile standards defined by the RISC-V International Organization, enabling customers to design with these software, saving time and cost, and increasing the chances of project success.

To further accelerate development, customers can leverage SiFive’s standard run control debug capabilities, as well as debug solutions supported by leading tool vendors. To protect P870-D designs, SiFive customers can also leverage the open WorldGuard model to simplify the process of creating a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).

The P870-D processor is now available for sampling to key customers and is expected to be officially released before the end of 2024.