Following work bringing Ubuntu Linux to the RISC-V boards like the StarFive VisionFive 2 , LicheeRV , Nezha , and others, Canonical today announced they have published an optimized RISC-V image for the Microchip PolarFire SoC FPGA powered "Icicle Kit" development board.

The PolarFire SoC FPGA Icicle Kit is a RISC-V developer board powered by this SoC FPGA that is powered by a SiFive E51 monitor core and four SiFive U54 application cores. This board has 2GB of LPDDR4 memory, 1Gb SPI flash, and 8 GB eMMC flash along with an SD card slot.

The Icicle Kit features four 12.7 Gbps SERDES interfaces, PCIe Gen2 root port, dual Gigabit Ethernet, two SPI, and a Raspberry Pi compatible 40-pin header. There is no display/graphics support.

The Icicle Kit has been advertised as being a "low-cost" development board but currently commands a $590 USD price-tag, which is out of reach to most enthusiasts / low-cost independent developers especially for what is going to be relatively lackluster performance.

Those interested in Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS support for the Icicle Kit can learn more via Ubuntu.com .

Upstream in the Linux kernel there has been Icicle Kit DT since Linux 5.13 along with other PolarFire SoC upstream work .