SpacemiT shows off usably quick RISC-V mini desktop

UBUNTU SUMMIT SpacemiT is demonstrating its impressive new K3 RISC-V SoC, a fairly hefty 16-core device - with a moderately hefty price. One of the few hardware vendors exhibiting at the recent Ubuntu Summit was SpacemiT. (The site is available in both Chinese and English - click the globe symbol at top right to switch between them.) The company's product page for the Key Stone K3 chip has specs that look powerful: 16 CPU cores, divided between eight of SpacemiT's own X100 cores, running at up to 2.4 GHz, and eight A100 AI cores". The full product brief [PDF] has more. The RISC-V CPU cores meet the RVA23 spec, which is significant. When Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka" came out in October last year, we noted that the RISC-V variant needed RVA23 - specifically, RVA23S64 [PDF]. The RISC-V assocation called RVA23 a major milestone: it delivers both full vector-math acceleration as well as hypervisor capabilities. Canonical considers RVA23 significant too, and it announced support for the new SoC back in February. However, in October 2025, there was a very major snag with RISC-V RVA23: there was no commercially available RVA23 hardware available. The only way to run the RISC-V edition of Questing" was under emulation inside QEMU. Now, RVA23 kit exists and is shipping, and we were able to play with full Ubuntu GNOME running on real hardware. Preview versions of the K3 have been around for some time, and some of the Linux benchmarking sites have been performance-testing them for a while. Back in January, CNX Software ran remote benchmarks, showing performance around the level of a Raspberry Pi 5. Via partner Banana Pi, the chip is available installed on a miniature motherboard as the K3 Pico-ITX. This has a socket for Gigabit copper Ethernet, plus an SFP+ connector for 10GbE over fibre; 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory; 128 or 256 GB of fast local UFS storage, plus two M.2 slots for additional NVMe storage. It can also drive a 60 Hz 4K display, or a 2.5K one at 90 Hz. The K3-Pico is optionally available in an Intel NUC-sized miniature desktop case, and last month Phoronix benchmarked this in its usual detail. The device can beat the Raspberry Pi 500+ in multiple tests, and perhaps unsurprisingly it also bests the SiFive P550 Premier whose launch The Reg covered in October 2024, and which has been one of the mainstream RISC-V boards since. Ubuntu is naturally fully supported, and from our quick hands-on test, it performed well. Video played smoothly, and what's more, the machine stayed responsive while it was doing so. The difference from the previous time that we tried RISC-V kit at the Ubuntu Summit was impressive. An updated Framework laptop motherboard should become available soon. SpacemiT also supports various other distros, both Western and Chinese, notably its own Bianbu OS, which seems to be based on Ubuntu and LXQt. Banana Pi launched the K3 Pico-ITX board in May. We found it on Ali Express for slightly under 300 (US $400) for an 8GB RAM version, but the listing says that the RRP is 595 (a couple of bucks under $800). That's roughly twice the price of a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB RAM: 168 in the UK or $175 in the US. Although the K3-Pico is a much higher-spec device, RISC-V performance will still cost you. The company is based in Hanzhou, a short way up the Qiantiang estuary from Shanghai. The name SpacemiT" is in fact rather clever, and we feel it's under-served by its logo. In the company's native Chinese, it's " (Jin die shikng), which Google tells us translates as Iterative Spacetime". The name in English is composed of SPACE, reading left to right, and TIME reading right to left. We reckon it merits some better graphic design that somehow emphasizes this. A couple of years ago, The Register called SpacemiT a relatively obscure Chinese firm", but the K3 looks promising. SpacemiT may not remain obscure for long. (R)