SystemCore: FRC's New 2027 Control System Explained

FIRST is replacing the roboRIO. The 2027 FIRST Robotics Competition season — BIOCORE presented by Haas, part of the 2026-2027 FIRST CANOPY season, kicking off Saturday, January 9, 2027 at 12:00 p.m. ET — is the season the change lands. WPILib's own 2027 changelog puts it plainly: "The change from the roboRIO to Systemcore is the biggest control system update since the introduction of the cRIO." That is not marketing copy. The processor, the operating system, the Driver Station application, the Java package names, and the wiring on a large chunk of your robot all change at once.

The replacement is SystemCore, a controller designed by Limelight Vision specifically for FIRST and built around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. FIRST announced it in November 2024, put it in the hands of 50 alpha-test FRC teams in June 2025, and in December 2025 reported that it had run in more than 1,000 competition matches at offseason events.

This article is deliberately split into what a primary source confirms and what is still unpublished. A lot about SystemCore is genuinely not public yet: price, on-sale date, Kit of Parts details, and the exact 2027 rule language about the roboRIO. Where FIRST has not said something, this article says so instead of guessing. Last verified: Aug 3, 2026.

What SystemCore is, and why FIRST is retiring the roboRIO

The project started with a Request for Proposal for a future mobile robot controller, which FIRST opened in late 2023. The result was announced in November 2024 as the "Future Mobile Robot Controller," developed in collaboration with Raspberry Pi and Limelight Vision "along with significant contributions from other supporters including WPI, REV Robotics, and Google," with manufacturing "in Wales at the industry leading Sony UK Technology Centre."

FIRST's stated aim in that announcement was that the modular approach "simplifies the user experience, making FIRST programs as accessible as possible while retaining the power and flexibility that enable teams to push their limits." The second, less-advertised goal is unification: SystemCore is the common controller for both FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge. FRC gets it first, in the 2026-27 season; FTC adopts it in 2027-28, paired with a companion device called MotionCore, which "combines power distribution, encoder input, and actuator support into a single unit," and a new brushless actuator called the A301.

The technical case for retirement is easy to see once you line the numbers up. The roboRIO runs a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 at 667 MHz on a Xilinx Zynq-7020, with 256 MB of DDR3 RAM. SystemCore runs a quad-core Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz with 4 GB of RAM. That gap is not academic — WPILib's 2027 removed-features page deletes mutable Java units on the grounds that "Systemcore has enough RAM to handle immutable units." The roboRIO's memory budget was shaping library design decisions.

If you want the background on the outgoing hardware, our roboRIO guide and FRC control system explainer still describe the system you will compete with through the end of the 2026 season.

Confirmed hardware specs

These come from the Limelight SYSTEMCORE Specifications document (published June 15, 2025, with revision notes dated 6/24/25 and 10/1/25), linked directly from the official wpilibsuite/SystemcoreTesting repository and referenced from WPILib's SystemCore introduction page. Read the caveat on page one before you design around any of it: "This product is currently undergoing alpha testing and is subject to change. All features and metrics marked with asterisks (*) are in-progress or subject to change." I have preserved those asterisks below.

A large caveat on top of that caveat. The specification sheet describes alpha hardware. In December 2025 FIRST announced hardware changes made in response to alpha feedback, and several of them are team-facing: "the Weidmueller Power Input connector is being removed, both programs will utilize the Bridge Port Molex Microfit+ to power the device, and the CAN connectors are being changed to 2 pin Molex SL connectors. Other changes include the addition of a configuration button and changing the I/O to pull-up instead of pull-down in digital mode." Treat connector and pull-direction details in the alpha spec sheet as already superseded.

Host processor (Raspberry Pi CM5)

• CPU: quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2.4 GHz (BCM2712), 512 KB L2 per core, 2 MB shared L3
• RAM: 4 GB LPDDR4X-4267
• Storage: 16 GB eMMC
• GPU: VideoCore VII @ 800 MHz, GLES and Vulkan
• PCIe: 1 lane, PCIe 2.0
• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth: dual-band 802.11ac (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), BT 5.0 / BLE
• OS: LIMELIGHT OS — Linux 6.6 with PREEMPT_RT patches

Real-time I/O subsystem (Raspberry Pi RP2350)

• Dual-core ARM Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz, 520 KB SRAM, no storage
• The host loads firmware into the I/O subsystem's SRAM on every boot, which guarantees the host and the I/O firmware are always version-matched

Physical

• 215 g (0.475 lb); 135.5 mm × 71.5 mm × 28.13 mm (5.3" × 2.8" × 1.1")
• Aluminum bottom housing, ABS/PC top housing, conformal coating on the primary PCB
• Every connector features raised geometry to prevent debris entry due to vibration, and each connector group is fully surrounded by the top housing
• Storage temperature 0–70 °C*, operating humidity 10–90% RH non-condensing*; operating temperature range listed as "Pending Certification"

Power

• Buck-boost input, 5 V – 26 V (6S nominal), 4.5 V – 35 V survivability
• 6 W idle, 40 W max
• Brownout protection: configurable, listed at 6.3 V with 7.5 V restoration*, behavior "PWM and Digital Outputs Disabled"* — and note the spec sheet flags that brownout protection was disabled in alpha image 157
• Reverse-polarity protection, ±30 kV air and contact ESD protection (IEC 61000-4-2)
• Every power rail has overcurrent protection, and faults are reported three ways: robot telemetry, the onboard screen, and the STATUS light

Sensing and display

• Onboard IMU: 400 Hz quaternion output with fused robot yaw, 3-axis acceleration (±4 G to ±32 G), 3-axis gyroscope (±125 dps to ±4000 dps)
• 0.96" 128×64 monochrome white OLED showing IP addresses, hardware faults, team number, heartbeat indicators* and software version numbers*
• Three LEDs: Power (solid green = normal operation), Mode (solid yellow = robot on and disabled, blinking yellow = robot on and enabled), Status (solid red = uncleared hardware fault)

That onboard screen is a bigger quality-of-life win than it sounds. Every team that has ever crawled under a bumper with a laptop to find out which IP the robot grabbed will understand immediately.

SystemCore vs roboRIO, side by side

The two rows that will cost you the most build time are CAN and general I/O. Going from one CAN bus to five is a genuine architectural change. Going from 10 PWM + 10 DIO + analog + relay down to six reconfigurable ports is a real constraint if your robot leans on discrete sensors.

Ports and wiring: what actually changes

CAN. Five independent CAN-FD interfaces, named can_s0 through can_s4 in software, each with built-in 120 Ω termination and ±24 V differential / ±58 V common-mode overvoltage protection. The alpha spec sheet lists Weidmüller wire-to-board connectors taking 22 AWG ferruled wire, but FIRST has since said the CAN connectors are changing to 2-pin Molex SL — so do not buy ferrules against the alpha sheet. Practically: you can split your swerve modules onto separate buses, isolate a noisy device, and stop chaining twenty CAN devices into one daisy chain. You also stop hunting for the terminating resistor at the end of the run.

SmartIO. Six ports on 3-pin Molex SL connectors (SIGNAL / 3.3 V / GND), each reconfigurable at runtime between digital in/out, PWM in/out, analog in, addressable LED*, and quadrature decoding*. The analog path is a 12-bit ADC (8.75–9 bit ENOB) measuring 0.0–3.3 V with up to 500 kS/s aggregate* and 99.9% linearity. SIGNAL pins are 24 V tolerant with a 10 mA limit and 16-bit maximum pulse-width resolution. The 3.3 V VOUT rail is limited to 1 A total, shared across all I/O and I2C ports — worth knowing before you hang six sensors off it.

A limit-switch gotcha. On alpha hardware the I/O signal pins carry a 4.7 kΩ pull-down, so the testing repo instructs that "limit switches will need to short the SIGNAL pin to the +3.3V pin on Systemcore" — the opposite of roboRIO habit. FIRST has since said digital-mode I/O is changing to pull-up on revised hardware, which would flip that back. Check which behavior your unit has before you wire a switch.

What is simply gone. No relay ports. No analog outputs. No SPI. No MXP expansion header on the hardware at all. WPILib's 2027 removed-features list confirms the software side: relays, analog output, analog gyros, SPI, analog triggers, DMA, counters, interrupts, DigitalGlitchFilter, DigitalSource, ultrasonic, Servo (removed for insufficient power delivery), the Nidec Dynamo brushless, Jaguar controllers, the Axis camera, and the SPI IMUs (ADIS16448, ADIS16470, ADXL345, ADXRS450). If any of those are on your 2026 robot, they are not coming with you.

I2C. Two ports on 4-pin Molex SL, 100 kHz default and 400 kHz fast mode, 3.3 V. Important gotcha from the official testing repo: the pinout does not match the roboRIO — SCL and SDA need to be swapped. SystemCore matches the Qwiic / Control Hub pinout instead. Existing 4-wire I2C cables need rework.

Power. The alpha spec sheet lists a Weidmüller connector taking 18 AWG ferruled wire at 5–26 V, and on alpha units you must not use the Weidmüller input and the Bridge port at the same time. That path is going away. On beta units, per the testing repo, "the only way to power is through the MicroFit Pwr/Bridge port," using either a MotionCore bridge cable or the included MicroFit-to-XT30 cable — and FIRST has confirmed both programs will end up powering the device through the Bridge port. There is also a dedicated RSL port (10 V nominal, 100 mA max, Molex SL).

The rest of the power chain is unchanged: WPILib's control-system hardware overview still lists the REV Power Distribution Hub (20 high-current 40 A channels plus 4 low-current 15 A channels, one of them switchable), the CTRE PDP and PDP 2.0, and the AndyMark PD. If you are new to that side of the robot, start with our PDH guide and the electrical wiring guide.

Radio. The Vivid-Hosting VH-109 is still the documented FRC robot radio, and VH-109 firmware 2.0.0 (released January 2026, and the minimum version required by the FRC Radio Kiosk for the 2026 season) added an "Enable SystemCore Mode" configuration option. Vivid-Hosting's documentation describes what it does: it "changes the default DHCP reservation for roboRIO-XXYY-FRC to robot.local." SystemCore's own Wi-Fi comes up as an access point with SSID SYSTEMCORE, password PASSWORD, at 172.30.0.1 — useful on the bench and in the pit. Unconfirmed: FIRST has not published 2027 rules on whether the onboard radio may be enabled at events. Assume the VH-109 remains the field link until the manual says otherwise.

M.2 slot. A+E key, 30 mm, PCIe 2.0 at 5.0 GT/s, 3 A available. The spec sheet states SystemCore "must be operated with the included M.2 cover installed." FIRST has described the platform as built for "emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning," but I could not confirm a specific supported accelerator part from a primary source, so treat any particular model name you see quoted as unverified.

Timeline: what is dated, and what is not

Dated and sourced:

• Late 2023 — FIRST opens the RFP for the future mobile robot controller
• Nov 2024 — SystemCore announced publicly as the Future Mobile Robot Controller
• Mar 2025 — FIRST publishes a fuller picture of the device, including SmartIO and the web interface, and opens the alpha interest form
• Jun 12, 2025 — 50 FRC alpha teams selected from "over 400 wonderful applications"
• Fall 2025 — FIRST's testing-reminder post confirms the price goal and the FTC schedule slip
• Dec 8, 2025 — FIRST reports 1,000+ offseason competition matches on SystemCore, confirms FRC adoption in 2026-27 and FTC in 2027-28, and lists post-alpha hardware changes
• Apr 24, 2026 — WPILib publishes "The 2027 FIRST Driver Station"
• Apr 25, 2026 — FIRST Driver Station v2027.0.0-alpha-2 released (the latest public DS release as of this writing)
• 2026 — WPILib v2027.0.0-alpha-6 is the current public alpha, and the SystemCore OS repo carries separate alpha and beta image lines with builds through the spring

Not dated, not published as of Aug 3, 2026: the retail price, the on-sale date, whether SystemCore ships in the 2027 Kit of Parts, whether a broad public beta opens before kickoff, and the 2027 robot rules. FIRST's most recent control-system blog post remains the December 8, 2025 FTC-focused update. Anyone quoting you a SystemCore price or a purchase date right now is repeating a rumor.

Is my roboRIO still legal in 2027?

FIRST has not published an answer. The authoritative document is the 2027 game manual, which releases at kickoff on January 9, 2027. Treat every claim you read on social media before then as unverified.

What is confirmed points hard in one direction:

• The official testing repository states plainly: "Software posted here is Alpha software for the 2027 season and is not compatible with Control Hub or roboRIO."
• WPILib's 2027 hardware support was rewritten around SystemCore — multiple CAN buses, SmartIO, onboard IMU — and deleted the roboRIO-era peripherals listed above.
• The 2027 FIRST Driver Station blog states: "Only Systemcore is supported, the roboRIO and existing FTC SDK devices will continue to use their existing Driver Station systems."
• The roboRIO Team Number Setter tool was removed because "Config for Systemcore will be handled via the web interface."
• AndyMark's own roboRIO 2.0 listing tells customers the roboRIO and roboRIO 2 "are both legal through the end of the 2026 season" — a vendor statement, not a rule, but a telling one.

One nuance worth flagging, because it gets misquoted constantly: the December 2025 blog describing a transition period in which "the legacy system and a hybrid approach will be legal" through at least the 2030-31 season is a FIRST Tech Challenge post about the FTC transition, not FRC. Do not apply that timeline to your roboRIO.

The planning conclusion is unambiguous even without the rule: build your 2027 plan around SystemCore. If you are running a fall project or an offseason robot, there is no version of 2027 where SystemCore knowledge is wasted.

What SystemCore will cost

FIRST's only public statement on price is from its fall 2025 testing-reminder post: "While we can't yet share the exact cost to teams for Systemcore, we are on target to meet our goal of offering Systemcore at a lower price than the roboRIO." No number has been published.

For a reference point, the NI roboRIO 2.0 lists at $485.00 at AndyMark as of August 3, 2026. "Lower than the roboRIO" is a wide target, and FIRST has not said by how much.

Until a number lands, budget a placeholder rather than a figure. If you are building a 2027 budget now, our budget calculator is a reasonable place to park the line item.

What changes for programmers

This is the section that will eat your fall. WPILib 2027 is not a normal year-over-year update.

Language and package moves. WPILib 2027 uses Java 25 and C++23, and limits Linux support to the latest Ubuntu LTS. Java packages move from edu.wpi.first to org.wpilib, and C++ namespaces move from frc:: to wpi::. The VS Code importer performs these renames automatically during project import; per the testing repo, opening an existing project in WPILib 2027 triggers the importer to create a new 2027 project from it.

OpModes. WPILib adds an OpMode framework borrowed from FTC, with Java and C++ OpMode robot templates already available and documentation still in progress. The new Driver Station adds selecting an op mode to run alongside the familiar mode buttons.

Commands v3. A new command framework for Java, built on coroutines, with compile-time safety checks for unsafe coroutine usage. Commands v2 still exists but has been trimmed: RamseteCommand is gone (replaced by an LTV unicycle controller, for "more intuitive tuning"), and PIDCommand, ProfiledPIDCommand, TrapezoidProfileCommand and their subsystem variants were removed as "poor abstractions."

API churn you will hit on day one. XboxController, PS4Controller, PS5Controller, and StadiaController collapse into one Gamepad class (with touchpad support). MotorController.set() becomes setThrottle(). MotorController.stopMotor() becomes disable(). robotInit() is removed — use the Robot constructor. MathUtil.clamp() gives way to Math.clamp(). The "Test" robot mode is renamed "Utility." NetworkTables 3 support is removed entirely; NT4 migration is required.

Dashboards. Shuffleboard, SmartDashboard, PathWeaver, and RobotBuilder are all removed for 2027 — the Java GUI tools "due to lack of maintenance," and PathWeaver specifically "due to its lack of swerve support and lack of a maintainer." The replacement pattern is genuinely different: Elastic and AdvantageScope Lite install as IPK packages onto SystemCore itself through the "Add Package" card in the robot's web interface at http://robot.local, then launch from that same interface. The testing repo notes these packages "will soon be pre-baked into the OS." Glass remains available on the desktop side.

The new Driver Station. Rewritten from scratch and supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux (x64 and arm64 on all three). Important limitation, quoted directly: "FMS (At Event) support will only be enabled on Windows and the hardware appliance if approved for FRC use. Linux Desktop and macOS will not be getting FMS support." Practice Mode has been renamed Match Mode, and an A-Stop button lets you start autonomous while keeping the timing transition into teleop. WPILib describes planned support for a future hardware appliance and for the existing FTC REV Driver Hub with an OS update. FMS support "is currently being added," with the hope of using it at FRC offseasons this year.

One nuance that surprises people: the NI Driver Station still works with SystemCore during alpha testing. The compatibility table in the testing repo notes the NI DS "will continue to function with all currently released Systemcore images," but newer features such as OpMode selection and Alerts require the 2027 Driver Station, SystemCore image ≥ 10, and WPILib ≥ alpha-5.

LabVIEW. WPILib's 2027 removed-features page states: "LabVIEW is not currently supported on Systemcore." I could not confirm from a primary source any announced plan to bring LabVIEW to the new platform, so LabVIEW teams should treat 2027 language choice as an open question and read our programming software guide before committing.

Vendor libraries. The testing repo maintains a compatibility matrix, and against the current WPILib alpha it is sparse. For WPILib v2027.0.0-alpha-5/6, only two libraries list a compatible release: CTRE Phoenix 6 v26.50.0-alpha-1 and REVLib v2027.0.0-alpha-2. ReduxLib, PathPlannerLib, ChoreoLib, and AdvantageKit are all marked as having no compatible release for that WPILib version, though each has a build that works against the older alpha-2. Expect this to keep moving through the fall.

What your team should do, August–December 2026

1. Read the WPILib 2027 changelog and removed-features pages now, together, as a team. Thirty minutes of reading tells you exactly how much of your codebase survives.
2. Audit your 2026 robot for dead hardware. Relays, analog outputs, SPI IMUs, MXP breakout boards, ultrasonics, servos on PWM, Nidec Dynamos. Every one of those is a design change, not a code change.
3. Count your I/O. If your current robot uses more than six non-CAN sensor connections, decide now whether those sensors move to CAN or get cut. Six SmartIO ports is the budget.
4. Plan your CAN topology deliberately. Five buses is an opportunity, not just a spec. Sketch which subsystems go on which bus before you cut wire.
5. Do not pre-buy connectors or ferrules. The power and CAN connectors changed after alpha testing, and the alpha spec sheet is stale on both. Wait for final hardware documentation.
6. Fix your I2C cables. SCL and SDA are swapped versus the roboRIO. Rebuild or rewire them.
7. Do the code migration on an offseason project, not in January. Install WPILib 2027 alpha alongside your 2026 install, import an old project, and see what the importer breaks. Even without hardware, the package rename, Gamepad, setThrottle(), and the NT4 migration are all testable in simulation.
8. Try the new Driver Station. It is publicly downloadable and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Ten minutes now saves an hour at your first event.
9. Assign one student the "SystemCore watch." Have them check the FIRST community blog and the wpilibsuite/SystemcoreTesting repo monthly. The price, on-sale date, and KoP answer will land there first.
10. Do not buy a SystemCore yet. Nothing is on sale, and FIRST has not published what arrives in the Kit of Parts.

Frequently asked questions

Will SystemCore be in the 2027 Kit of Parts?**

FIRST has not published 2027 Kit of Parts contents. As of August 3, 2026, no 2027 Kit item confirmations have been released. Widely repeated claims that every team automatically receives a SystemCore in the 2027 Kit are community speculation, not an announcement. Expect the answer alongside the 2027 Kit materials in the fall.

Can my team buy a SystemCore right now to practice on?

No. SystemCore has only been distributed to selected test teams — 50 FRC alpha teams in the first wave, plus FTC alpha teams who received beta-revision hardware. FIRST has not announced retail availability or opened a general beta program. You can, however, download and use the 2027 software today: the WPILib 2027 alpha installer, the FIRST Driver Station alpha, and the SystemCore OS images are all public on GitHub.

Do I need a new radio for SystemCore?

Not based on anything published. The Vivid-Hosting VH-109 remains the documented FRC robot radio, and VH-109 firmware 2.0.0 (January 2026) added an "Enable SystemCore Mode" option that repoints the default DHCP reservation from roboRIO-XXYY-FRC to robot.local — a strong signal the existing radio carries forward. SystemCore does have its own dual-band 802.11ac radio, but FIRST has not published whether that onboard AP may be enabled at competition.

Will my Kraken, Falcon, SPARK MAX, and Talon motor controllers still work?

Almost certainly yes for CAN devices, with library updates — though the 2027 rules are not published, so "legal" is not yet settled. SystemCore's five CAN-FD buses speak to the same vendor ecosystem, and CTRE Phoenix 6 and REVLib both have 2027 alpha releases listed as compatible with the current WPILib alpha. What does not carry over is anything that depended on removed roboRIO features: relay-controlled devices, PWM servos, the Nidec Dynamo brushless motor, and Jaguar controllers are all removed from WPILib 2027.

How much of my 2026 robot code will actually survive?

Your control logic and math survive; the plumbing does not. The package rename from edu.wpi.first to org.wpilib touches every import, the four gamepad classes collapse into one Gamepad, set() becomes setThrottle(), robotInit() is gone, "Test" mode is now "Utility," and NetworkTables 3 no longer exists. The VS Code importer automates a large share of the renames, but plan on a real migration sprint rather than a single evening.

**Is the roboRIO worth buying in 2026?

Only if you need one to finish the 2026 season or run a summer/fall project — for example, replacing a dead unit. At $485 for a roboRIO 2.0 (AndyMark listing, verified August 3, 2026), it is not a sound investment for 2027 planning given that WPILib 2027 and the new Driver Station target SystemCore exclusively. Put that money toward the 2027 control system instead.