Intro to RISC-V

RISC-V is a relatively new computer technology that is being actively promoted as a competitor to many architectures that require fees.

RISC stands for “Reduced Instruction Set Computer”. Here the V stands for the Roman number 5. Hence RISC-V is the 5th Generation of a family of computer cores. It is pronounced “RisK Five”. Unlike most other ISA designs, the RISC-V ISA is provided at no cost with an open source license. RISC-V does not require a license because it is Open Source and Open Architecture which means that the design can be modified and special instructions can be created to improve performance or make life difficult for hackers. For more information view the introduction guide to RISC-V e-book linked here.

RISC-V eBook

A growing list of products and suppliers such as Microchip, Seeed, Xilinx, Digilent are shown below:

Processor Boards
FPGA Boards
Resources

MPFS-ICICLE-KIT-ES

Digi-Key Part Number: MPFS-ICICLE-KIT-ES-ND

Description: PolarFire SoC FPGA SiFive RISC-V Icicle Kit MPFS250T-FCVG484EES PolarFire® FPGA Evaluation Board

GAPUINO GAP8 RISC-V DEV KIT

Digi-Key Part Number: 1597-1705-ND

GAP8 GAPuino - RISC-V MPU Embedded Evaluation Board

RED-V SIFIVE RISC-V REDBOARD

Digi-Key Part Number: 1568-DEV-15594-ND

Description: FE310 RedBoard - RISC-V MPU Embedded Evaluation Board

SIPEED MAIX BIT RISC-V AI+IOT

Digi-Key Part Number: 1597-1714-ND

K210 Sipeed MAix BiT RISC-V AI+IoT - RISC-V MPU Embedded Evaluation Board

NEXYS A7 ECE FPGA TRAINER BOARD

Digi-Key Part Number: 1286-1081-ND

NEXYS A7 ECE FPGA Trainer Board

ARTY A7-100T: DEV BOARD ARTIX-7

Digi-Key Part Number: 1286-1206-ND

Artix-7 Artix-7 FPGA Evaluation Board

Trion® T120 BGA324 Development Kit

Digi-Key Part Number: 2134-T120F324C-DK-ND

BGA324 Dev Kit T120 Trion® FPGA Evaluation Board

Xyloni® Development Kit

Digi-Key Part Number: 2134-XYLONI-ND

Efinix T8F81C2 programmable device in an 81-ball FBGA package which is fabricated using Quantum™ technology

Artix-7 Evaluation Board

Digi-Key Part Number: 1597-102991277-ND

Artix-7 FPGA Evaluation Board

GUIDE to RISC-V

RISC-V is a relatively new computer technology that is being actively promoted as a competitor to many established architectures. This guide has been written as a brief introduction for Digi-Key customers and students who would like to gain knowledge of RISC-V software and hardware.

At the RISC-V Global Forum on September 3, 2020, Imagination Technologies will be announcing the “RVfpga: Complete Course in Understanding Computer Architecture” global teaching project for RISC-V as part of its university programme to be launched in November 2020. Some of the material from this course https://university.imgtec.com is presented here.

Efinix - RISC-V SOCs: Powering Embedded Computing

RISC-V is an open-source standard instruction set architecture (ISA) that is managed by the non-profit RISC-V Foundation. This modular ISA has a base instruction set and optional extension sets. Because RISC-V is free and open-source, it has gained popularity worldwide. Over 65 RISC-V cores, both commercial and open-source, are available today.

Efinix has created 3 RISC-V SoCs based on the VexRiscv core created by Charles Papon. The VexRiscv core, which won first place in the RISC-V SoftCPU contest in 2018, is a 32-bit CPU using the ISA RISCV32I with M and C extensions, has five pipeline stages (fetch, decode, execute, memory, and writeback), and a configurable feature set. Each SoC has a RISC-V processor, memory, a range of I/O, and interfaces for embedding user functions. You can easily create entire systems that include embedded compute and user-defined accelerators all in the same Trion® FPGA.

Specialized IP and software lets developers without FPGA experience rapidly deploy FPGA-based edge AI.

Article Library

Shields UP #1 - MultiZone™ Security - Making RISC-V the Most Secure Platform Ever Publish Date: 2020-10-26

This session will appeal to anyone with an interest in embedded security in general and in RISC-V in particular.

Shields UP #5 - RISC V Enclaves: A Clean Slate Approach to Linux Security Publish Date: 2020-10-26

The MultiZone™ demo shows how to secure the deterministic behavior of mixed-criticality systems where Linux and Real-Time come together in a single PolarFire SoC device.

Introduction to RISC V Publish Date: 2020-08-12

A quick introduction to, and overview of the open-source RISC-V architecture.

Fundamentals of FPGAs—Part 5: Getting Started with Intel (Altera) FPGAs Publish Date: 2020-05-07

Developers can depend on FPGAs and other programmable devices from Intel (Altera) in a tremendous range of applications.

Article Library