ERICI: The European RISC-V Industrial Computing Initiative and Its RVA23 Reference Stack
What ERICI is
ERICI (European RISC-V Industrial Computing Initiative) is a non-commercial effort to coordinate an open RVA23 RISC-V software stack for industrial computers, spanning firmware, a boot loader, a partitioning hypervisor, a real-time OS and Linux, and to verify that all layers boot together on real RVA23 silicon. The initiative's premise is that RVA23 chips are now shipping but no industrial computer is built around them, so a reference stack that fixes the interfaces between layers can break the deadlock between board makers waiting for software and software waiting for boards.
ERICI states on its site that it is in its founding phase, based in Europe and open worldwide, and that it sells nothing and charges no membership fees. It explicitly defines the boundary of its own claim: "A box that boots it is ERICI-compatible."
The stated gap: RVA23 silicon has arrived, the industrial computer has not
The first RVA23 systems-on-chip are on the market with eight 64-bit RISC-V cores, the hypervisor extension and an IOMMU, and ERICI describes them as "excellent development and edge platforms" but not industrial computers. The initiative argues that an industrial computer must additionally survive the control cabinet, talk to the field, and remain available for a decade or longer.
ERICI published a requirements table comparing two currently available RVA23 boards against what it says an industrial machine needs:
| Requirement | Firefly AIBOX-K3 | Milk-V Jupiter2 |
|---|---|---|
| RVA23 SoC with hypervisor extension and IOMMU | Yes | Yes |
| 24 V DC supply, wide input range | 9-20 V | 12 V / USB-PD |
| Extended temperature, -40 to 85 C | -20 to 60 C | Not stated |
| Fieldbus and real-time I/O (EtherCAT, CAN, TSN) | Not stated | Via modules |
| DIN-rail or panel mounting | Not stated | Not stated |
| Hardware watchdog, isolated digital I/O | Not stated | Not stated |
| Industrial EMC and safety certification | Not stated | Not stated |
| Long-term availability, 10-15 years | Not stated | Not stated |
| Partitioned software stack: real-time next to Linux | Not yet | Not yet |
The site notes these specifications are as published by the manufacturers in October 2026, that both products are shown only as examples of RVA23 hardware available today, and that no affiliation with ERICI or endorsement by the manufacturers is implied. ERICI's own conclusion is that "the missing pieces are not the cores. They are the industrial hardware around them and an open, partitioned software stack on top."
The reference stack, layer by layer
ERICI defines a six-layer reference stack, documents the interface between each pair of layers, and verifies the whole stack on real RVA23 hardware. Each layer depends only on what the layer below hands over. QSOE Systems develops the reference components; Linux is developed by its community.
- Hardware: a RVA23 SoC with IOMMU. The demonstrated example is the SpacemiT K3 with 8 X100 cores, the hypervisor extension and an IOMMU.
- Firmware: HFI BIOS, a U-Boot-based firmware with POST and a BIOS-style Set-Up menu for industrial boards.
- Loading: mr-bml, a menu-driven boot loader shipped as a UEFI application, in which the operator selects which systems to start.
- Partitioning: gRouvr, described as an RVA23 resource-partitioning hypervisor that uses "every available means of isolation, IOMMU included". It is loaded like a Linux kernel with its initrd; its boot package is a CPIO archive holding the kernel and initramfs image of every partition, so both mr-bml and GRUB can load it.
- Real-time partition: QSOE, described as a QNX-style environment with /N running on its own Skimmer microkernel and /L running on seL4 with the same userspace. Multiboot3 is used for /L, with gRouvr planned next.
- Operator partition: Linux for everything that is not time-critical, providing GUI, HMI and networking.
Each of the real-time and Linux partitions receives its own CPUs, memory and devices, plus a devicetree describing them, so both start side by side on one SoC.
Licensing and the longevity argument
ERICI argues a machine expected to run for 15 years needs software that can be maintained for 15 years, and therefore publishes the stack as open source so anyone can build, audit and maintain it, with or without the original developers. The specific licenses are HFI BIOS under GPL-2.0, matching the U-Boot it is based on; mr-bml under GPL-3.0; and gRouvr and QSOE under Apache 2.0.
Portability is claimed at the profile level rather than the chip level. ERICI states that the first RVA23 SoCs come from Chinese vendors and that more will follow from other vendors and other regions, and that moving a box to another RVA23 chip means porting the firmware, adapting the hypervisor and the board's drivers, while the real-time application and the operator's Linux move with it.
The demonstration
ERICI points to a video of gRouvr booting Linux and QSOE/N together on the SpacemiT K3. The site captions the demo image as a QSOE/N login prompt running as a gRouvr guest on the SpacemiT K3, and notes that the partitioned stack has been demonstrated on the SpacemiT K3 PicoITX board but not yet on the Firefly AIBOX-K3 or Milk-V Jupiter2 products.
The RISC-V timeline ERICI offers as context
- 2010 - RISC-V starts at UC Berkeley
- 2015 - RISC-V Foundation founded
- 2020 - RISC-V International, based in Switzerland
- 2021 - Hypervisor and vector extensions ratified
- 2024 - RVA23 profile ratified (the site dates this to October 2024 and notes the profile makes the hypervisor and vector extensions mandatory, so software can rely on them on every compliant chip)
- 2026 - First RVA23 boards; ERICI starts
What ERICI invites, and its stated conditions
ERICI is recruiting industrial hardware makers (to build "an RVA23 board in a real enclosure, with I/O and a datasheet"), silicon vendors with IOMMU-equipped RVA23 SoCs and long-term availability, machine builders and plant operators with field requirements and a first machine, OS and driver vendors bringing an RTOS, Linux distribution or drivers up on a named RVA23 box, and universities for teaching and theses on real ERICI systems.
Its stated operating rules are: non-commercial, no membership fees; open interfaces (UEFI, kernel plus initrd, devicetree) with closed-source components welcome as long as they keep to those interfaces; contributions must target a real system - anamed SoC in a real box, with a datasheet and a date; and a preference for concrete results over abstraction, summarized as "No road maps without silicon, no specs without a system that boots them."
The main objection on Hacker News: who is actually behind this?
The dominant criticism in the thread was that ERICI looks like a website from an individual rather than an institution, and that it was presented and read as a European initiative. Commenter cbolton wrote: "This is just a webpage some individual put up, right? I mean as far as I can see there's no institute, no company, no government behind this. Just one RISC-V enthusiast on the contact page." dragoncrab quoted the site's own impressum in support: "ERICI is a non-commercial initiative in its founding phase. It is not yet a legal entity, sells nothing and charges no fees." strofocles was blunter: "So one person creates a (fantasy ?) website and it gets on the 1st page of HN being mistaken for an European initiative?"
The site itself does not dispute the founding-phase status; it states plainly that ERICI is not yet a legal entity. The author, posting as ymz5, responded in the thread: "Author here. Happy to answer technical questions: about HFI BIOS, partitioning hypervisor (gRouvr), QSOE RTOS. I hope that leading European industrial computer manufacturers notice the initiative and join -- or at least start evaluating the possibility to use RVA23 SoCs in their devices. Yes, currently only Chinese vendors can provide such chips, but the world is changing fast."
The second objection: the silicon is not European
Several commenters noted that the RVA23 boards ERICI uses as reference hardware come from Chinese vendors. dadoum asked: "Why a SpaceMiT and not a Cortus, Codasip, or anything European?" ur-whale pointed to the Milk-V corporate identity - "Shenzhen MilkV Technology Co., Ltd" - and wrote: "Wake me up when someone can actually build a computer from scratch with EU-made parts." PowerElectronix wrote simply, "Very sad that the silicon itself is not made in EU," and clarionbell: "And the chips will be manufactured in China. Truly a genius move." hollowonepl framed the tension as an open-ISA initiative effectively "promot[ing] Chinese computer appliances." ERICI's own position acknowledges this directly: the first RVA23 SoCs come from Chinese vendors, and the stack is designed to depend on the RVA23 profile and open interfaces rather than a particular SoC.
The third objection: what problem does this solve?
ShadowOfThePit questioned the premise behind the longevity pitch, quoting the site's own lines: "A machine expected to run for 15 years should not depend on one company's roadmap, or one government's decisions" and "A machine that runs for 15 years needs software that can be maintained for 15 years," then asking: "I don't quite understand. Has this been a problem for industrial machines? Can't they already run for 30 years and more? What exactly is this initiative looking to fix and improve? Besides of the basic idea of FOSS being good, and whatever." No reply from the author resolving that question appears in the thread.
Skepticism about the track record of similar efforts also appeared. 0l wrote: "Yet another 'initiative'. I remember the European Processor Initiative that went precisely nowhere." dcreater dismissed the presentation as "Vibe coded site and copy," and orbifold called it "Pure model slop."
The supportive read: RISC-V's open ISA as the durable argument
Counterpoint in the thread centered on the value of the open ISA itself rather than on ERICI's institutional status. Havoc wrote: "Neat. This seems like exactly the sort of thing Europe should be pushing." perarneng: "I love RISC-V and have been following its progress so long. I hope it gets more and more adoption in the world for desktops and servers. Its already massive in MCU's but we need it everywhere. Open ISA is the best ISA." snvogel-style brevity came from snvz: "RISC-V is inevitable," and blitzar echoed the long-running meme, "RISC architecture's going to change everything." hn_submit contrasted the initiative with cheap hardware reality, noting a bulk purchase of Chinese RISC-V development boards at roughly $2.30 a piece.
What is concretely verifiable here
The verifiable claims are narrow and technical: RVA23 was ratified in October 2024 and mandates the hypervisor and vector extensions; RVA23 boards with 8 X100 cores, the hypervisor extension and an IOMMU are purchasable in 2026; a partitioned stack of gRouvr, QSOE/N and Linux has been demonstrated on a SpacemiT K3 PicoITX board; and the stack's components carry named open-source licenses (GPL-2.0, GPL-3.0, Apache 2.0). The broader claim - that this constitutes a European industrial computing initiative - is not backed by a legal entity, funding, government participation or European silicon, a gap the author acknowledges in the thread and the site acknowledges in its impressum.