SiFive HiFive Unmatched
SiFive Freedom U740 (FU740): 4×U74 @1.2GHz + 1×S71 monitor core
End of life
SiFive
- Specs
- 16GB DDR4 onboard, PCIe x16 (for a GPU/NVMe), M.2 Key M, M.2 Key E (WiFi), GbE, 4× USB 3.0, microSD, SPI Flash; microATX form factor with 12V barrel power.
- Price
- The official page is marked Discontinued with no price; clearance in 2024 dropped to US$299, and second-hand is now the main source (price unverified)
- Preinstalled / official OS
- ubuntu / buildroot
- Doc languages
- en
- Checked
- 2026-11-01
The historic RISC-V desktop reference, now better suited to second-hand bargains or teaching; the setup cost for newcomers (serial + DIP switches + power) is high, so it is not recommended as a first board. Community derivatives such as openwrt exist too (not listed as standard distro ids).
Distros
- Ubuntu Official Canonical's official preinstalled ubuntu-24.04.5-...+unmatched.img.xz, still within 24.04 LTS support
- Buildroot Official The SiFive Freedom U SDK (FUSDK, a Buildroot/Yocto hybrid) is the vendor reference system, including U-Boot/OpenSBI
- Debian Community Debian's official riscv64 installer works, and the Debian wiki has a page for this board
- Fedora Community Fedora RISC-V has long listed Unmatched as a reference board
- openSUSE Community openSUSE Ports has riscv64; the site returns 403, so this board's image is unverified
- FreeBSD Community FreeBSD/riscv supports Unmatched
- OpenBSD Community Community reports say OpenBSD/riscv64 works
- Gentoo Community The Gentoo RISC-V project covers U74 platforms
- Armbian Partial Community images existed, but Armbian has since removed this board's page
- openEuler Community The openEuler RISC-V SIG has an image for this board
- openKylin Community An openKylin RISC-V release supported it in the past
- deepin Community The deepin RISC-V port works
Download
Docs and videos
Pitfalls
- No onboard display output — add a PCIe GPU or use serial; debugging needs a USB-UART (FTDI) to see OpenSBI/U-Boot logs
- It needs a 12V/6A barrel supply; under-powering causes random reboots or DDR training failures
- The boot medium is set by the MSEL switches (SD/SPI flash); the wrong setting means no boot, and a corrupted SPI firmware needs JTAG recovery
- Officially discontinued: Ubuntu 24.04 is the last supported LTS image, the kernel is old, and new distros largely skip this board
- PCIe GPUs need external power, and some cards show nothing during U-Boot — they only light up once Linux starts
RuyiSDK test reports11
Systems RuyiSDK actually tested on this board. Open a report for install steps and the verdict.
| Distros | Status | Versions | Last tested | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armbian | ✕ Fails to boot | 25.2.0-trunk.266(noble) | 2025-04-14 | Open report |
| Debian | ◐ Basic | trixie/sid | 2025-04-10 | Open report |
| deepin | ● Good | — | 2025-04-05 | Open report |
| Fedora | ◐ Basic | 38 | 2024-06-21 | Open report |
| FreeBSD | ◐ Basic | 14.2 | 2025-04-11 | Open report |
| OpenBSD | ◐ Basic | 7.6 | 2025-04-11 | Open report |
| openEuler | ◐ Basic | 24.03-LTS-SP2(LTS) · 24.09 | 2025-10-24 | Open report |
| openKylin | ● Good | 1.0 | 2025-04-05 | Open report |
| openSUSE | ◐ Basic | — | 2024-06-21 | Open report |
| OpenWrt（not covered here） | ◐ Basic | 24.10.0 | 2025-04-11 | Open report |
| Ubuntu | ◐ Basic | 24.10 · 24.04.2(LTS) | 2025-04-11 | Open report |
Status meanings: good — fully usable (desktop boots); basic — basic system (serial console works); part — partial functionality; cft — image exists, needs verification; cfh — documented as supported but fails to boot; cfi — claimed supported, no image; wip — announced only.
Sources17
- cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/24.04.5/release/ubuntu-24.04.5-preinstalled-server-riscv64+unmatched.img.xz
- github.com/sifive/freedom-u-sdk
- wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/SiFive/HiFiveUnmatched
- fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/RISC-V/Installing
- wiki.freebsd.org/riscv
- openbsd.org/riscv64.html
- openeuler.org/en/sig/sig-RISC-V
- sifive.com/development-platforms/hifive-unmatched
- sifive.com/documentation
- canonical-ubuntu-hardware-support.readthedocs-hosted.com/boards/how-to/sifive-hifive-unmatched/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/Armbian/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/Debian/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/Deepin/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/Fedora/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/FreeBSD/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/reports/Unmatched/OpenBSD/README/
- matrix.ruyisdk.org/
The full source list and how each claim is judged: Sources