New PicoRio SBC To Feature RISC-V Open-Source Processor

News
By published

An open-source alternative to ARM.

Imagination Technologies has paired up with RIOS Laboratory to develop a new SBC called PicoRio. According to the press release, the new board will feature an open-source RISC-V processor.

Talk of a new SBC almost always draws comparison to the popular Raspberry Pi board, which features an ARM-based processor. So far no details have been made about the exact size of the PicoRio. Whether or not this board is a comparable competitor remains unclear.

See more Raspberry Pi News
Ash Hill
Ash Hill
Contributing Writer

Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Findecanor
    Interesting, but awaiting more info on specs and price.

    I would really like some small board with a general-purpose class CPU for starting to hack RISC-V with Linux or FreeBSD.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    No matter what GPU they decide to use, it will certainly run circles around the Pi's paltry VideoCore GPU, which is even quite weak in the Pi 4.

    CPU-wise is less clear. A72 is pretty respectable and Pi 4 managed to include 4 of them.
    Reply
  • GetSmart
    Some early RISC-V-based SiFive HiFive benchmarks here https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SiFive-RISC-V-Initial-Benchmark:vip:

    Can Imagination Technologies make a better RISC-V processor than SiFive's effort? Currently the results doesn't look that encouraging, still a big gap in performance...:unsure:
    Reply