RISC-V is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) that allows anyone to create a CPU implementation. Originally popular in deeply embedded systems, 2026 is expected to bring a surge of Linux-capable RISC-V development boards. Key advantages include permissive licensing enabling diverse business models, extensibility for AI/ML and custom accelerators, and growing software ecosystem support (Linux kernel, GCC, LLVM). Canonical has supported RISC-V since 2021, treats it as a first-class architecture, and plans to support the RVA23 profile from Ubuntu 25.10 onwards with up to 15 years of LTS support via Ubuntu Pro.
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What is RISC-V?Enabling new business modelsExtensibility powers technology innovationHow mature is the software ecosystem?Why RISC-V matters to CanonicalConclusionFurther reading and resourcesSort: