SiFive FU740 PCIe Support Queued Ahead Of Linux 5.13

Arguably the most interesting RISC-V board announced to date is SiFive's HiFive Unmatched with the FU740 RISC-V SoC that features four U74-MC cores and one S7 embedded core. The HiFive Unmatched also has 16GB of RAM, USB 3.2 Gen 1, one PCI Express x16 slot (operating at x8 speeds), an NVMe slot, and Gigabit Ethernet. The upstream kernel support for the HiFive Unmatched and the FU740 SoC continues.

With the Linux 5.12 cycle there was the start of mainlining SiFive FU740 SoC support and that work is continuing for the upcoming Linux 5.13 cycle.

Queued on Friday into the PCI "next" branch ahead of the Linux 5.13 merge window is a new PCIe host controller driver. The "pcie-fu740" driver is set to be introduced in Linux 5.13 in providing PCI Express controller support for this SoC. Obviously quite important especially if wanting to leverage the PCIe x16 slot for a graphics card or other connectivity.

The last we heard on the HiFive Unmatched shipping was in December when told it would be mid-Q1 after upgrading the platform to 16GB of DDR4. Q1 has passed without hearing any update. The pre-order page from Mouser Electronics is currently indicating they are expecting the HiFive Unmatched to arrive around the end of May. At least with the delays is allowing more time for the upstream Linux kernel to continue with the support around the FU740. The HiFive Unmatched pricing remains at $665 USD.