Kubernetes is now available for RISC-V processors

Researchers at the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) have announced the availability of K3s, a lightweight Kubernetes distribution, for processors based on the RISC-V architecture.

Kubernetes is a leading open-source container orchestration platform that cloud providers, organizations, and enterprises around the world widely use. K3s is a certified Kubernetes distribution optimized for resource-constrained devices, such as the experimental boards currently available for RISC-V.

The availability of K3s for RISC-V is a significant milestone for the RISC-V community, as it is expected to foster innovation and collaboration among developers, researchers, and industry partners interested in exploring the potential of RISC-V for cloud computing.

RISC-V is an open instruction set architecture gaining momentum as a powerful and versatile alternative in computer processors. FORTH is committed to supporting and contributing to the RISC-V hardware and software ecosystems, and this latest announcement is a testament to their efforts.

Developing K3s for RISC-V was a complex undertaking that involved adapting both K3s and its software dependencies to the RISC-V instruction set. The effort has produced RISC-V porting contributions to over ten related software projects, most of which have already been merged into the official codebases.

The availability of Kubernetes on RISC-V is one of the outcomes of the RISER project, which is developing the first all-European RISC-V cloud server infrastructure. The RISER project also develops a microserver board that integrates up to four RISC-V chips, high-speed storage, and networking.

The work on Kubernetes for RISC-V has also been funded by the REBECCA project, which is developing an efficient and secure edge-AI system based on an open RISC-V processor. The REBECCA project is a consortium of 24 partners that are creating a complete hardware and software stack that incorporates beyond-state-of-the-art technologies in processing units, hardware accelerators, reconfigurable hardware, and AI libraries and frameworks.

For more information on Kubernetes for RISC-V, please visit www.riser-project.eu and https://www.rebecca-chip.eu.