Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
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Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
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Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#2Maybe should have linked here directly: https://www.sifive.com/products/coreplex-risc-v-ip/u54-mc/
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#3Would be nice if there was a summary page describing what "open source processor" means in this context.
I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP.
https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/
Royalty-free seems like a better term to describe what they are offering than "open source".
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#4Would be nice if there was a summary page describing what "open source processor" means in this context. I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/ Royalty-free seems like a better term to describe what they are offering than "open source".
Indeed, tl;dr SiFive sells cpu hardware design IP starting from 275k.
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#5A better written article:
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332398
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#6Maybe should have linked here directly: https://www.sifive.com/products/coreplex-risc-v-ip/u54-mc/
Which was discussed few days ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#7Would be nice if there was a summary page describing what "open source processor" means in this context. I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/ Royalty-free seems like a better term to describe what they are offering than "open source".
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217
> I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. > > https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/
IIUC, SiFive is selling the ready-made "hard IP" [1], that means a compiled netlist that has been laid out at a slightly-abstract-but-almost-mask level.
All this is manual work done on top of a netlist generated using the open-source Rocket chip generator [2,3] (SiFive people contribute to the upstream repository).
Let's make a Wordpress analogy: SiFive is a big contributor to Wordpress and does most of the work upstream. At the same time they sell you preconfigured server images for your blog with Wordpress, nginx, varnish and postfix almost ready to go (few settings like IP, hostname and WP theme are still missing).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_pro...
[2] https://bar.eecs.berkeley.edu/projects/2014-rocket_chip.html
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#8Would be nice if there was a summary page describing what "open source processor" means in this context. I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/ Royalty-free seems like a better term to describe what they are offering than "open source".
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217 > I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. > > https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/ IIUC, SiFive is selling the ready-made "hard IP" [1], that means a compiled netlist that has been laid out at a slightly-abstract-but-almost-mask level. All this is manual work done on top of a netlist generated usin…
Also they resell IP that is not theirs to give away, sadly. They are working on putting this chip in workstation class hardware, and when they do it will support PCIe, DDR4, USB3, etc. using off the shelf solutions they have licensed and integrated.
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#9Maybe I'm missing the relevant nexus between Linux, Open Source, and RISC-V, but I'm pretty sure BOOM [1] was already running Linux ~2 years ago.
Re: Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor
#10Would be nice if there was a summary page describing what "open source processor" means in this context. I understand the ISA is open source, but SiFive does appear to be selling their IP. https://dev.sifive.com/coreplex-risc-v-ip/buy/ Royalty-free seems like a better term to describe what they are offering than "open source".
Seems like a good start though. LowRISC(http://www.lowrisc.org/) is working on completely open processors, so if the adoption of RISC through SiFives' processors can improve support for RISC-V, the path towards open processor hardware should be a lot easier.