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Signaloid C0-microSD is an iCE40UP5K FPGA SoM in the microSD card form factor (Crowdfunding)

11 November 2024 at 00:01
Signaloid iCE40UP5K FPGA SoM in use

Cambridge-based hardware and cloud computing company, Signaloid has begun crowdfunding for the C0-microSD โ€“ a tiny, programmable iCE40UP5K FPGA system-on-module (SoM) in a microSD card form factor. It comes preloaded with a RISC-V softcore and users can also load custom FPGA designs onto the board. Part of the Signaloid C0-microSDโ€™s unique appeal is its SD card form factor, which allows it to fit in unused full SD or microSD slots. This allows the implementation of FPGA-based hardware acceleration in systems without traditional expansion interfaces like PCIe M.2 slots. It can also be interfaced with as a standard SD block device and used to bring hardware-accelerated data processing to existing industrial automation, manufacturing, and robotics systems. The iCE40UP5K FPGA SoM has two main use cases: a hot-pluggable FPGA module or a hot-pluggable RISC-V co-processor module. The SD interface allows you to load custom FPGA bitstreams and applications onto the module from [...]

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Andes QiLai quad-core AX45MP RISC-V SoC with NX27V vector processor powers micro-ATX Voyager Development Platform

6 November 2024 at 16:18
Andes Voyager Development Platform

Andesโ€™ Voyager Development Platform is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the companyโ€™s QiLai SoC with four AX45MP 64-bit RISC-V cores and an NX27V vector processor optimized for AI workloads. The Voyager board supports up to 16GB of DDR4 via a UDIMM socket, features 16Mbit SPI Flash for boot code and an SD card socket, includes three PCIe Gen4 slots to connect external devices such as GPU card and SSD,ย  as well as a JTAG debugger and USB to UART bridge for debugging during Linux software development. Andes QiLai RISC-V AI SoC Before looking at the board itself, letโ€™s check the Andes QiLai SoC specifications: CPU cores Andes AX45MP-4C cluster 4x RV64GC 8-stage superscalar processors clocked at 1.6 GHz (worse) / 2.1 GHz (typ.) Support of MESI cache coherence protocol with Coherence Manager 32KB L1 Instruction and Date cache 2MB L2 cache I/O Coherence Port (IOCP) โ€“ Synchronous AXI4 (256 bits [...]

The post Andes QiLai quad-core AX45MP RISC-V SoC with NX27V vector processor powers micro-ATX Voyager Development Platform appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

Waveshare ESP32-P4-NANO board offers Ethernet, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5, MIPI display and camera interfaces, GPIO headers

6 November 2024 at 00:01
ESP32-P4-NANO

Waveshare ESP32-P4-NANO is the first third-party ESP32-P4 RISC-V board weโ€™ve seen and it follows the launch of the Espressif Systemsโ€™ ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board devkit introduced this summer. While the ESP32-P4 is a general-purpose microcontroller, the ESP32-P4-NANO board still implements wireless connectivity through an ESP32-C6 WiFI 6 and Bluetooth LE 5.4 module and offers a range of interfaces such as an Ethernet RJ45 port with optional PoE, MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, a USB Type-A OTG port, and GPIO headers for expansion. ESP32-P4-NANO specifications: Microcontroller โ€“ ESP32-P4NRW32 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU โ€“ 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU โ€“ H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory โ€“ 768 KB HP L2MEM, 32 KB LP SRAM, 8 KB TCM, 32MB PSRAM Storage โ€“ 128 KB HP ROM, 16 KB LP ROM Wireless module โ€“ [...]

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Giveaway Week 2024 โ€“ Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard

4 November 2024 at 10:00
Bianbu OS setup wizard

The 11th edition of CNX Software giveaway week is underway! We have seven items to give away this time around: six review samples I will send myself and one from a company offering one of its cellular IoT development kitsโ€ฆ The contest is open worldwide, and CNX Software Thailand is also joining the fun with four additional items available to people with an address in Thailand. The first prize of this yearโ€™s giveaway is Shenzhen MILK-V Technologyโ€™s Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard powered by a 1.8 GHz SpacemiT K1/M1 octa-core processor, equipped with 16GB LPDDR4x, and various interfaces and features such as M.2 PCIe 2.0 x2 socket for an NVMe SSD, a 4K-capable HDMI video output, two gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 module, and more. I reviewed the Jupiter mini-ITX motherboard with Ubuntu-based Bianbu OS and an Auriga 6-Bay NAS mini-ITX chassis last August and the results were [...]

The post Giveaway Week 2024 โ€“ Jupiter RISC-V mini-ITX motherboard appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

MicroPython v1.24 release adds support for RP2350 and ESP32-C6 microcontrollers, various RISC-V improvements

1 November 2024 at 17:17
Micropython v1.24 with ESP32-C6 and RP2350 support

MicroPython has become one of the most popular ways of programming microcontrollers, and the just-released MicroPython v1.24 adds support for the widely-used Raspberry Pi RP2350 and Espresif ESP32-C6 microcontrollers and a range of other changes. Those include improved RISC-V support with native code generation, an updated Zephyr v3.7.0 RTOS with threading support, unified TinyUSB bindings across ports, a portable UART IRQ API, and enhanced mpremote recursive copy. Damien George goes into more detail about the RISC-V improvements: โ€ฆ include an RV32IMC native code emitter, native NLR and GC register scanning implementations for 32- and 64-bit RISC-V, support for placing RV32IMC native code in .mpy files and also freezing it, and RISC-V semihosting support. Testing for RISC-V is done with the qemu and unix ports, and the support is utilised in the esp32 and rp2 ports. The Raspberry Pi RP2350 comes with both Arm Cortex-M33 and RISC-V cores, and the good [...]

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$5 CH32-Ant CH32V003 RISC-V development board comes with Stemma QT connector

30 October 2024 at 00:01
Ch32V003 RISC-V board

The CH32-Ant is a low-cost, breadboard-compatible development board powered by the WCH Electronics CH32V003-F4U6 RISC-V microcontroller, ideal for prototyping. It is pin-compatible with Prokyberโ€™s ESP32-C6-Bug, offering an easy transition for users who donโ€™t need wireless capabilities or the higher performance of the ESP32-C6FH4. The board features a Stemma QT connector for straightforward I2C sensor integration and a USB Type-C port that supports data transfer and power through software-based USB on the CH32V003. The CH32-Ant offers configurable logic voltage at 3.3V or 5V, adjusted via an onboard 0-ohm resistor, providing flexibility for sensor projects. Powered by the CH32V003F4U6 microcontroller, it operates up to 48MHz with 2kB of RAM and 16kB of flash, making it cost-effective for applications requiring basic processing without wireless. The CH32-Ant features a compact layout designed for breadboard compatibility, a Stemma QT connector for an I2C module on one end of the board, and a USB Type-C connector [...]

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ESP32-P4-NANO Combines ESP32-P4 and ESP32-C6 Chips for PoE and Wireless Connectivity

29 October 2024 at 22:06
Waveshare has launched the ESP32-P4-NANO board, powered by the ESP32-P4 SoC featuring RISC-V dual-core and single-core processors. This board is tailored for advanced HMI and edge computing applications. Equipped with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5/BLE via the onboard ESP32-C6-MINI module, it ensures efficient wireless connectivity through the SDIO interface. The ESP32-P4 chipset includes a dual-core [โ€ฆ]

Microchip PIC64HX1000 64-bit RISC-V AI MPU delivers post-quantum security for aerospace, defense, and automotive applications

28 October 2024 at 07:00
Microchip PIC64HX1000 64 bit AI MPU

Microchip recently unveiled the PIC64HX1000 64-bit RISC-V AI microprocessor (MPU) family designed for mission-critical intelligent edge applications in the aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical sectors thanks to a quantum-resistant design. These new MPUs feature eight SiFiveโ€™s Intelligence X280 cores, each clocked at 1 GHz. The MPUs are engineered with a decoupled vector pipeline enabling 512-bit operations enabling the PIC64HX1000 to achieve up to 2 TOPS for AI/ML processing and come equipped with integrated Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Ethernet connectivity. This new microprocessor includes a dedicated system controller for runtime monitoring and fault management, WorldGuard architecture for workload isolation, and post-quantum defense-grade cryptography, which includes the NIST-standardized FIPS 203 and FIPS 204 cryptographic algorithms, ensuring protection against future quantum computing threats. PIC64HX1000 64-bit AI MPU specification MPU variants PIC64HX1000 โ€“ IN (Industrial) PIC64HX1000 โ€“ AV (Aviation) PIC64HX1000 โ€“ MI (Military) CPU โ€“ 8x 64-bit RISC-V cores (SiFive X280), up to 1 GHz, [...]

The post Microchip PIC64HX1000 64-bit RISC-V AI MPU delivers post-quantum security for aerospace, defense, and automotive applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

HiFive Premier P550 mini-DTX motherboard features ESWIN EIC7700X RISC-V AI SoC, up to 32GB DDR5, a PCIe x16 slot

21 October 2024 at 22:00
SiFive HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V mini-DTX motherboard

SiFive HiFive Premier P550 is a mini-DTX (203 x 170mm) motherboard powered by a 1.4 GHz ESWIN EIC7700X quad-core RISC-V SiFive P550 SoC with up to 19.95 TOPS of AI performance, and equipped with up to 32GB LPDDR5 memory and a 128GB eMMC flash all soldered on a system-on-module. The motherboard itself features a SATA III connector for data storage, includes an HDMI 2.0 port for 4K video output, a PCIe Gen3 x16 slot (working at x4), two gigabit Ethernet ports, an M.2 Key-E socket to add a WiFi/Bluetooth card, up to five USB interfaces, and more. HiFive Premier P550 specifications: SoC โ€“ ESWIN EIC7700X CPU 4x SiFive Performance P550 RV64GC RISC-V cores @ 1.4GHz (up to 1.8GHz when overclocked) with Cortex-A75-class performance 32KB(I) + 32KB(D) L1 Cache 256KB L2 Cache 4MB shared L3 Cache Cache supports ECC (support SECDED) NPU (Not currently supported in software) โ€“ Up to 19.95 [...]

The post HiFive Premier P550 mini-DTX motherboard features ESWIN EIC7700X RISC-V AI SoC, up to 32GB DDR5, a PCIe x16 slot appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 with 240MHz RISC-V Processor, Zigbee, and Thread Connectivity

21 October 2024 at 00:13
The ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 is another upcoming entry-level development board designed for IoT applications, featuring the ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 module. This board supports key wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Bluetooth LE 5, Zigbee, and Thread. The ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 module is equipped with a 32-bit RISC-V single-core processor running at 240 MHz along with 384 KB [โ€ฆ]

DC-ROMA Laptop II with 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM, Powered by Linux

19 October 2024 at 21:02
The DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II is one of the latest hardware platforms designed for developers interested in the RISC-V architecture. It features a RISC-V 64-bit 8-core CPU, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, SSD support, and comes pre-installed with Ubuntu Desktop 23.10. The DC-ROMA Laptop II is powered by the SpacemiT Key Stone K1 SoC, a RISC-V 64-bit [โ€ฆ]

Challenger+ RP2350 WiFi6/BLE5 IPEX3 with CircuitPython Compatibility

12 October 2024 at 20:33
The Challenger+ RP2350 Wi-Fi6/BLE5 IPEX3 development board showcases the dual-core Cortex-M33/RISCV RP2350 microcontroller from Raspberry Pi. With 8MB of Flash and RAM, itโ€™s optimized for developers creating embedded solutions that demand high-performance memory and wireless capabilities. A key component of the board is the ESP32-C6 module, enabling Wi-Fi6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. This module supports [โ€ฆ]

Coin-sized Development Board Based on RISC-V CH32V203 Microcontroller, Priced at $6.50

4 October 2024 at 10:42
The LANA TNY by Phyx is a compact development board featuring the WCH CH32V203 RISC-V microcontroller. Similar in size to the Adafruit QT Py and Seeed Studio XIAO, it offers additional SMD pins for expanded input/output capabilities and includes a built-in WS2811-compatible LED output. At its core, the CH32V203G6 microcontroller runs a 32-bit RISC-V processor [โ€ฆ]

Phyx LANA-TNY โ€“ A WCH CH32V203 RISC-V development board for embedded applications

4 October 2024 at 09:00
LANA-TNY RISC V development board

The LANA-TNY is a compact development board created by Phyx and built around the CH32V203 RISC-V microcontroller. It offers a low-cost solution for embedded development and features a built-in USB bootloader, eliminating the need for an external programmer to flash the firmware. With a USB-C connector and a minimalist design, the board provides essential components to start development quickly. At its core, the Phyx LANA-TNY is powered by the CH32V203G6U6, a 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller from WCH Electronics, capable of running up to 144MHz with 1-cycle multiply/divide operations. It includes 10KB of SRAM, 32KB of single-cycle Flash, and 224KB of additional external flash for program or data storage, though the external memory operates at a slower speed. The CH32V203 microcontroller supports a range of peripherals, including ADC, timers, USB devices, UART, I2C, and SPI, making it suitable for a wide variety of embedded applications. Designed in the style of Adafruitโ€™s QT [...]

The post Phyx LANA-TNY โ€“ A WCH CH32V203 RISC-V development board for embedded applications appeared first on CNX Software - Embedded Systems News.

PINE64 Unveils StarPro64 RISC-V SBC with EIC7700X SoC

3 October 2024 at 10:51
The StarPro64 is the latest addition to PINE64โ€™s line of RISC-V-based hardware, continuing their commitment to the architecture over the past three years. Key features include support for up to 32GB of RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, and more. Since 2021, several of PINE64โ€™s devices, including the popular Pinecil, have adopted RISC-V. While the Ox64 [โ€ฆ]

Olimex RVPC is a one Euro RISC-V computer kit with VGA and PS/2 connectors

3 October 2024 at 00:01
One Euro RISC-V computer

Olimex RVPC is one Euro RISC-V computer powered by a WCH CH32V003 RISC-V microcontroller and equipped with a VGA port for video output and a PS/2 connector to connect a keyboard. You wonโ€™t be able to do much with this device as an end-user, but it does not matter since the RVPC open-source hardware board mostly targets the education market and is offered as a kit to be soldered to lower the selling price and to serve as a soldering learning kit. Olimex RVPC specifications: MCU โ€“ WCH CH32V003 32-bit RISC-V2A microcontroller up to 48 MHz with 2KB SRAM, 16KB flash (SOP8 package with 6x GPIOs) Video Output โ€“ VGA connector (3x GPIO used for Vsync, HSync, and RGB) Keyboard port โ€“ PS/2 connector (2x GPIO used) Programmer port โ€“ 2-pin header for CH32V003 programming through a board such as ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo-USB Misc โ€“ Buzzer (1x GPIO) and Red power LED [...]

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RISC-V-Based KVM Solution in PCIe Form Factor with Low/High Profile Compatibility

1 October 2024 at 22:42
The NanoKVM-PCIe is a recent solution from Sipeed, designed to simplify remote management of ATX PC cases and 2U servers. Built on the RISC-V architecture, it offers low power consumption and easy installation, with compatibility for both low-profile and high-profile PCIe brackets. This product follows the recent release of the Lichee NanoKVM Cube, an IP-KVM [โ€ฆ]

RISC-V on Raspberry Pi Pico 2

By: Luke Wren
25 September 2024 at 14:10

The Hazard 3 RISC-V cores on the RP2350 were designed by Raspberry Piโ€™s own Luke Wren in his spare time โ€“ and as theyโ€™re open source, you can download the design files yourself and start poking around in the very same chip that will eventually be in use on millions of units out in the wild. As Eben Upton puts it: โ€œIn adding Hazard3 to RP2350, weโ€™re aiming to give software developers a chance to experiment with the RISC-V architecture in a stable, well-supported environment, and to popularise Hazard3 as a clean, open core, suitable for verbatim use in other devices, or as a basis for further development.โ€ Lukeโ€™s reflections first appeared in issue 145 of The MagPi.

Iโ€™ve been doing logic design in my spare time since I was a student. Itโ€™s highly addictive, andย I think itโ€™s more accurate to say Iโ€™m a hobbyist who works in chip design than a chip designer with a hobby! Itโ€™s an open-source processor design that anyone can put in their chip and use to run RISC-V code anywhere. You can also run it on an FPGA board, or run the simulator on your own machine. Itโ€™s all built using open-source tools like yosys, nextpnr and gtkwave.

The image shows two RP2350 microcontrollers. The chip on the left features the Raspberry Pi logo, a stylised raspberry with a leaf. The chip is on a stylised sky blue background with what look like thin white cloud wisps darted through it.

The best way to get started is to get an FPGA board and just get hacking. Writing RTL [register transfer level] is a bit mind-bending at first โ€” you can think of it like a C program where all of the statements execute at once, rather than sequentially โ€” but that kick of seeing your own hardware come to life keeps you going. Start by blinking an LED, and keep going.

Hazard3 is 100% my own design. Itโ€™s a fork of Hazard5, the processor I designed for RISCBoy, my open-source competitor to the Game Boy Advance. Hazard5 is a five-stage pipeline โ€” therefore having many hazards: data flow, control flow and structural โ€” and a hazard is also a kind of โ€˜riskโ€™, like the instruction set.

Hazard5 was meant to run at the highest possible frequency on an iCE40 FPGA, so I could run the RISCBoy graphics core at a higher frequency too. Hazard3 on the other hand is a production-grade processor which delivers as much performance as possible in its small area envelope and within the range of frequencies I expect to see on microcontroller designs. Itโ€™s a productionised version of Hazard5 with a shorter pipeline, hardware debug, and some security and memory protection features that people expect in real systems.

From forking Hazard5 to having Hazard3 running CoreMark took less than a week. From that point until the first RP2350 tapeoutย was around two years, working on itย on-and-off throughout. There is still ongoingย maintenance work, and plans forย future expansion โ€” it will never be โ€˜finishedโ€™, just transition from development toย stable releases.

Before I started working on RISCBoy I had a project called Tarantula which was an eight-thread barrel processor implementing the Armv6-M instruction set, because that was the ISA I was most familiar with at the time, having written some Assembly during a summer internship. I abandoned the project because I realised I would never be able to share it with anybody, and I donโ€™t think I even have that source code any more.ย 

That experience changed how I looked at things from that point forward. When I decided I wanted to build a games console from scratch, including the processor, I looked around the instruction sets available at this point, this was around 2018, and there were a few interesting ones โ€” Hitachi SuperH had just become much less legally restrictive โ€” but RISC-V stood out as an instruction set where I could implement it fairly easily.ย 

The image shows two RP2350 microcontrollers. The chip on the left features the Raspberry Pi logo, a stylised raspberry with a leaf. The chip on the right shows the underside, highlighting the exposed silicon die pad and the lead frame surrounding it, indicating that these are likely surface-mount chips with a quad flat package (QFP) design.

The base instruction set is quite clean and simple, and you can add more complexity from a menu of extensions. I could share that with other people, and they could actually use it, and I could program using a real production-grade compiler like GCC or LLVM.

That was a long time ago, and RISC-V hasย come a long way since, both technically and as a community. There are other instruction sets that have become more open in the wake of RISC-V but I think itโ€™s clear where the momentum is. Itโ€™s easy to criticise some of the technical decisions made in the base ISA โ€” did we really need 31 link registers? โ€” but the community is the most important thing in my eyes.

I am excited about RISC-V because it letsย you perform your mad-scientist architecture experiments on top of a clean and standard architecture. If you look at something like CHERI, which is a super-exciting development in the embedded security space, those folks have just gone and written a spec, and you can just go and implement it โ€” no need to wait for it to be served on a plate.

The post RISC-V on Raspberry Pi Pico 2 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

ESP32-C6 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 USB-C development board integrates 1.47-inch TFT LCD Display

24 September 2024 at 00:01
ESP32-C6-LCD-1.47

Waveshare has introduced the ESP32-C6-LCD-1.47 development board powered by an ESP32-C6 RISC-V microcontroller with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity and equipped with a 1.47-inch display with a 172ร—320 resolution. With a 4MB flash, an RGB LED, and a microSD card slot for extra storage, this board is suitable for projects that need a compact display, low power consumption, and wireless connectivity such as AIoT applications and human-machine interfaces (HMI). Earlier this month, we covered the ESP32-S3 USB dongle, another development board from Waveshare designed for HMI applications with the same 1.47-inch display with a 172ร—320 resolution, but a USB Type-A port instead of the USB-C port found in the model covered today. In the past, weโ€™ve written about other ESP32-based development boards for HMI applications, including the LILYGO T-HMI, ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4.3B, and Waveshareโ€™s ESP32-S3 LCD Driver Board supporting both square and round displays. Feel free to check them out if [...]

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