Fedora Linux Now Supports RISC-V Processors
The Fedora Linux project is “jumping on the RISC-V train,” joining other Linux distributions in supporting the emerging CPU architecture.
RISC-V is an open-standard Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), intended as an alternative to the x86 architecture used in most desktop and laptops, and the ARM architecture used in most phones and tablets. The difficult legacy architecture of x86 and the complex licensing of ARM has caused some companies to more seriously consider RISC-V as the computing platform of the future. At a minimum, it might be a viable platform for embedded devices and other similar use cases; Qualcomm and Google are working together on smartwatches powered by RISC-V.
Fedora Linux has announced its plans to fully support RISC-V hardware, alongside the existing Fedora builds for Intel and AMD x86, ARM, IBM Power, and IBM Z architectures. It’s still not a “primary” architecture for the project, but Fedora is taking steps in that direction. There are now official RISC-V install images, and Fedora has spun up a dedicated server for building RISC-V packages for software repositories. Debian and some other Linux distributions also have RISC-V builds.
