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Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

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Re: Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

#21

Post by cmrdporcupine »

alex7o wrote: post #11
bunnie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 1x Vexriscv RV32-IMAC + MMU, and 4x PicoRV32's as RV32E-MC for I/O processing, configured with extensions to enable deterministic, real-time bit-banging without having to count clocks.

That reminds me a lot of the xmos xcore mcus with 8 cores. I am curious what kind of synchronization primitives have you added and why?

Sounds like the Parallax Propeller 1/2 as well.

It's a good model for MCU stuff. There were people pushing Chip Gracey (Parallax) to use RISC-V instead of his custom ISA when he designed the P2 a few years ago, but he chose to do his own thing. Which has made compiler development difficult.

Re: Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

#24

Post by chuckadams »

bunnie wrote: post #7
mijoharas wrote: post #5

Cool project. Why is it called the Baochip/Dabao? Is it big Bao? Or take-away (just learnt the second meaning), or something else?

Personally, I love eating "bao" (a style of dumplings), but also coincidentally, a homophone of "bao" in Chinese (different character 保, similar sound) has a meaning of "protect; defend. keep; maintain; preserve. guarantee; ensure". So it means both things to me - one of my favorite foods, and also describes the technology. "dabao" is just a pun on that - means "take-away" or "to-go". The dabao evaluation board is ba…

That would explain the naming of OpenBao, a fork of Hashicorp Vault. Goes with the other fork's name (OpenTofu) as well as the meaning you just mentioned.

Re: Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

#25

Post by genxy »

To anyone from crowdsupply listening, please turn down your VPN check. I am not stripping my privacy protection to use your site.

*edit, Crowdsupply does a full block on multiple VPN providers. There is no way to access their site without turning off your VPN.

Re: Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

#26

Post by vintagedave »

This is wonderful! Also what a fantastic partnership that allowed adding a new CPU to that die. Kudos to them.

I had a lot of trouble finding out which open source license applies. Wikipedia’s RISC-V page doesn’t seem to say; its citation for being released under open source doesn’t seem to say which one either.[0] Could be wrong. Exhausted after working all day. But it’s not front and center…

On the RISC-V site I thought it might be more prominent too but if it is I missed it. I found some docs there licensed Creative Commons. Is that the license for the entire CPU? Even layouts and everything that is past the ISA to actual silicon?

[0] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/188405-risc-rides-agai...

Re: Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

#29

Post by K0balt »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #21
alex7o wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me a lot of the xmos xcore mcus with 8 cores. I am curious what kind of synchronization primitives have you added and why?

Sounds like the Parallax Propeller 1/2 as well. It's a good model for MCU stuff. There were people pushing Chip Gracey (Parallax) to use RISC-V instead of his custom ISA when he designed the P2 a few years ago, but he chose to do his own thing. Which has made compiler development difficult.

This seems more on the RPI side rather than propeller, propeller was never a really good choice for production integration. This looks like it could hold its own in many contexts.
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