RISC-V Ecosystem Gets More Standardization as Ubuntu Drops Non-Compliant CPUs

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has announced that its next-generation release will require RISC‑V processors to meet the newly ratified RVA23 profile. This specification, approved back in April, includes full support for Vector Instructions 1.0 and a Hypervisor extension. As Laurine Kirk, security researcher at Google, notes, by setting this higher baseline, Ubuntu 26.04 will no longer run on roughly 90% of existing RISC-V single-board computers, including the popular Raspberry Pi-style boards, unless their hardware is upgraded. Canonical’s move puts it in step with Google and Microsoft, both of which have already targeted RVA23 for their RISC‑V builds. This change will drive manufacturers to ship more secure, future-proof silicon, helping to guard against exploits like GhostWrite, a memory-access vulnerability discovered last year in T-Head’s XuanTie C910 CPUs.

We discussed RISC-V ecosystem fragmentation with Andrea Gallo, then the CTO and now the CEO of the RISC-V Foundation, regarding the fragmentation within the RISC-V ecosystem. “If you want to claim that you are RISC-V compatible, then there’s an architecture compatibility test suite that verifies that you are complying with the ISA. We run the same tests on a golden reference model and compare the signatures of the tests to ensure alignment with the specification.” He added that “We just ratified the RVA23 Profile. The newly ratified RVA23 Profile is a major release for the RISC-V software ecosystem and will help accelerate widespread implementation among toolchains and operating systems.” For anyone who wants to ship a working RISC-V processor, be it data center or mobile, the RVA23 profile is the one that guarantees no fragmentation and compatibility.

Even Framework, maker modular laptops, has been criticized for shipping devices with older RISC-V implementations. Not everyone is convinced this approach will benefit the wider community. Hobbyists worry that excluding legacy boards will slow grassroots adoption, pushing developers to seek out distributions such as Debian that promise continued support through custom repositories. OpenBSD advocates point out that their operating system remains compatible with the full range of RISC‑V hardware, presenting an attractive alternative for those unable or unwilling to upgrade. However, as our interview with RISC-V Foundation CEO points out, the foundation “shipped more than 200 boards to individuals. If any key maintainer needs a board that they have not been able to get, they can contact us at [email protected] for evaluation and support.”

For Linux OS makers like Canonical, requiring Ubuntu to meet an RVA23 baseline is a step in the right direction to help combat fragmentation and allow the RISC-V ecosystem to grow. Especially as the ISA specification and profiles are now standardized, software support is emerging rapidly for every type of workload, from mobile to HPC and AI.