1. Overview
At Hot Chips 2026, Canonical presented its plan to make RISC-V a first-class enterprise architecture for Ubuntu. Gordan Markuš, Canonical's Director of Silicon Alliances, argued that an Ubuntu system should behave like an Ubuntu system regardless of the underlying ISA — whether x86, Arm, IBM POWER, IBM Z, or RISC-V.
The core of Canonical's message is predictability through profiles. By aligning Ubuntu's RISC-V port with the ratified RVA23 application profile, Canonical gives hardware vendors and software developers a common target, reducing the fragmentation that has historically slowed RISC-V adoption in servers.
Key takeaway: Canonical is treating RISC-V not as a special-purpose embedded architecture, but as a peer enterprise platform that must pass the same build, test, patch, and long-term support cycle as x86 and Arm.
2. Ubuntu's RISC-V Architecture Baseline
Ubuntu builds each supported architecture against a baseline — the oldest ISA and extension set guaranteed to run that release. For RISC-V, the baseline moved from RVA20 to RVA23 starting with Ubuntu 25.10.
| Architecture | Ubuntu Baseline | Notable Extensions |
|---|---|---|
| amd64 | Original x86-64 | Baseline only; amd64v3 variant adds AVX2/FMA/BMI2 |
| arm64 | ARMv8-A + VFPv4 + NEON | Baseline only; variants possible |
| riscv64 | RVA23 (from Ubuntu 25.10) | Vector (V), Hypervisor (H), Bit-Manipulation (Zba/Zbb/Zbs) |
| POWER / IBM Z | Server architecture support | Long-term enterprise maintenance |
Canonical also plans to apply the architecture-variant model to RISC-V. A generic package will maintain broad compatibility, while an RVA23-tuned variant can exploit the vector, hypervisor, and bit-manipulation extensions that enterprise-class processors expose.
3. Why RVA23 Is the Fixed Target
RVA23 is significant because it is the first RISC-V application profile that combines the extensions needed for modern server, virtualization, and AI workloads in a single ratified baseline. Canonical highlighted three reasons this matters:
- Binary portability: Software built for RVA23 should run on any compliant processor without per-chip patches.
- Reduced variants: Developers can target one profile instead of guessing which extensions a given chip implements.
- Hardware roadmap alignment: Silicon vendors shipping server-class RVA23 systems in 2026–2027 now share the same software target.
Canonical compared RISC-V's trajectory to Arm64: Ubuntu added Arm64 support in 2011, but it was Ubuntu 16.04 LTS that made Arm servers practical without vendor-specific patching. Canonical wants RVA23 to play the same role for RISC-V.
4. Package Coverage vs. Test Maturity
Canonical reported that RISC-V package availability has reached about 95% of amd64 coverage in the Ubuntu archive. However, the test pass rate reveals the maturity gap.
| Metric | RISC-V (Ubuntu 26.10 snapshot) | amd64 |
|---|---|---|
| Packages under test | 3,443 | Larger pool |
| Packages passing | 1,898 | ~92% pass rate |
| Pass rate | 55.1% | ~92% |
| Archive coverage | ~95% of amd64 packages available | Baseline |
Test gap: The lower pass rate is attributed to emulation-based builds and tests (hours on native hardware can become days under emulation), a smaller share of packages with tests, and limited native RISC-V builder capacity.
Snap support is also incomplete because most public snaps target desktop and client software, while the apt package system covers a broader server workload.
5. Cloud Software: Kubernetes and MicroCloud
Beyond the base distribution, Canonical is porting Kubernetes and MicroCloud to RISC-V. These projects stress the platform more than a simple boot because they depend on networking, storage, virtualization, container images, monitoring, and orchestration tooling all working together.
For edge-cloud deployments, MicroCloud is particularly relevant: it packages LXD, Ceph, and Kubernetes into a lightweight cluster that can run on a small number of RISC-V nodes. Canonical's roadmap implies that a RISC-V edge cluster running Ubuntu + MicroCloud could become a supported configuration within the standard maintenance cycle.
6. RISE Project and Native Build Farm
Canonical is a participant in the RISE Project (RISC-V Software Ecosystem), working with RISC-V International to coordinate open-source software readiness across mobile, consumer electronics, datacenter, and automotive.
To close the test gap, Canonical operates a native RISC-V build and board farm hosted on Scaleway Elastic Metal, using hardware from Alibaba and SpacemiT. On Ubuntu 24.04 native RISC-V runners, the farm has processed:
- 24,000 jobs
- 700,000 minutes of compute
- Across 116 organizations
This infrastructure is the foundation for expanding native test coverage as more server-grade RVA23 hardware becomes available.
7. Enterprise Readiness Checklist
Canonical framed RISC-V enterprise readiness as a system-level problem. For a RISC-V server to be deployable without custom vendor patches, the platform must deliver:
- Profile compliance: RVA23 application profile + server platform specification.
- Consistent firmware: UEFI/ACPI-based boot, not board-specific bootloaders.
- Virtualization: Stable hypervisor interfaces and IOMMU support.
- Memory and device interfaces: Standard PCIe, NUMA, and interrupt models.
- Native build/test capacity: Enough hardware to maintain package quality.
- Long-term support SLA: Patches and security updates on the same schedule as x86/Arm.
Bottom line: Canonical is not waiting for RISC-V to "catch up" before treating it seriously. By setting RVA23 as the target, adding native builders, and porting cloud-native software, Ubuntu is positioning RISC-V as a deployable enterprise architecture within the 2026–2027 hardware generation.