Imagination's GPU selected by StarFive to create high-performance, small and low-cost BeagleV RISC-V AI single board computer

New collaboration supports RISC-V ecosystem with world-class GPU performance

London, England and Shanghai, China – February 22, 2021 – Imagination Technologies announces that StarFive, an industry-leading provider of RISC-V processors, platforms and solutions, has licensed the IMG B-Series graphics processing unit (GPU) IP to support the development of its latest RISC-V single-board computer (SBC). Imagination’s GPUs are designed to work with all processor architectures. The collaboration will help grow the RISC-V ecosystem.

StarFive is including Imagination’s GPU in the production version of its BeagleV artificial intelligence (AI) single-board computer, which was announced in January 2021, to add powerful and flexible graphics performance, perfecting the capabilities of the single-board computer, providing ideal solutions for cost-efficient, mutual-purpose RISC-V development hardware demanded by industry.

BeagleV is the world’s first RISC-V AI single-board computer used in edge computing and customized for the Linux operating system. It adopted StarFive’s self-developed AI vision processing system-on-chip (SoC), Jinghong 7100, having a multi-core RISC-V processor with frequency up to 1.5GHz. BeagleV not only is equipped with self-developed NNE and ISP, but also carries VDSP and video decorder/encorder, and has all the scalable features that today’s desktop computers possess, while being small, low cost and low noise. With the fusion of Linux and RISC-V, the BeagleV AI single-board computer can provide powerful software and hardware supports for the products and projects in the fields of industrial machinery, data centre, AI and edge computing, shortening the development cycle of project and accelerating the time-to-market.

StarFive selected Imagination’s BXE-4-32 GPU IP, a core from Imagination’s latest generation IMG B-Series GPU range. It provides StarFive’s single board computer with sufficient advantages in performance, size, and cost. B-Series is another significant evolution of Imagination’s GPU IP. With its advanced multi-core architecture, B-Series delivers up to 6 TFLOPS of compute power, with an up to 30% reduction in power, 25% area reduction and 35% bandwidth reduction over previous generations, and up to 2.5x higher fill-rate than competing IP cores. B-Series includes a total of 33 different configurations and offers extremely extensive options for multiple markets such as mobile, consumer, desktop, server, IoT, DTV, and automotive.

Thomas Xu, CEO, StarFive, says; “We are delighted to collaborate with Imagination. Imagination’s GPUs feature outstanding performance, power, and area (PPA), which will help us deliver powerful capabilities while optimising the cost. We look forward to conducting more strategic collaborations with Imagination in the future, and leveraging our respective technology and product advantages to build a more complete processor ecosystem and drive the continuous development of RISC-V technology.”

James Liu, Vice President and General Manager China, Imagination, says; “As a leader in RISC-V technologies, products and solutions, StarFive is showing its confidence and determination to the industry. The development and launch of a RISC-V single board computer is a great example of this and we’re very pleased that Imagination’s GPU plays an important role within it. We look forward to continuing to work with StarFive, helping them to develop more innovative and leading-edge products, and supporting the RISC-V ecosystem.”