
RISC-V: Free Core, Some Assembly Required - nkurz
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328620&print=yes
======
nickik
It will be a long time yet, but in my lifetime I want to see a completely open
source, open hardware laptop that is competitive in speed with closed source
alternatives, and it will hopefully be a good deal safer.

Security Researcher Joanna Rutkowska just released a concept for a stateless
laptop,
[http://blog.invisiblethings.org/2015/12/23/state_harmful.htm...](http://blog.invisiblethings.org/2015/12/23/state_harmful.html).

A fully Trusted computing base all and a secure architecture for application
in the user level.

Lets make the future happen.

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nickpsecurity
I didn't know a board was on the way with 28nm chips. That's exciting. The
only thing that threw me is that Grey could fit 400 RISC-V cores on one FPGA.
Makes me wonder what type of core and FPGA he was using...

~~~
_chris_
I believe Jan Gray was only implementing RV32I, but he was manually laying out
the core and the router himself!

You can find his slides here ([http://riscv.org/workshop-
jan2016.html](http://riscv.org/workshop-jan2016.html)).

~~~
nickpsecurity
Thanks for the link!

re cores

They don't appear to have floating point. That a pre-requisite for quite a few
accelerator cases. Also could help explain how many he fits in there at what
performance.

re FPGA

BOOM! I was thinking it was an UltraScale or Achronix given the numbers. So,
that was a hit.

re NOC

Probably the most exciting thing there. I'm guessing he's going to license it.
Might be able to use it in open projects or even ASIC's depending. I lack the
expertise to speak on the latter except to say that the existence of EDA
companies specializing in NOC generation means such a thing might be useful.

Also, good to know we can hit this kind of performance on an UltraScale. Makes
me more hopeful about what can be achieved with an open 45nm or 28nm FPGA once
we get them. Archipelago is progress in that area at 45-65nm already.

~~~
tacos
That's the 32 bit integer subset, floating point is available.

Plenty of stuff can get away with integer-only. Massive numbers of Xilinx
DSP48 on a FPGA is pretty common.

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groovy2shoes
"Ports of a handful of Linux variants including FreeBSD are well underway..."

When did FreeBSD become a Linux variant?

~~~
protomyth
> When did FreeBSD become a Linux variant?

I would imagine my answer is the same as yours: never.

Just add the phrase to your indicators of poor and non-fact checked
journalism. It helps tell if the author, article, and publication have any
real value.

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protomyth
I do hope whoever puts out the first RISC-V powered motherboard makes it in a
standard size that fits in existing cases. I hope it very much the same as an
Intel motherboard with a RISC-V instead of an Intel CPU. Please don't make the
funny development boards that ARM and MIPS vendors are making. Give us
something we can put in a case, buy some memory and hard drives / SSDs, and
get hacking on.

~~~
unwind
Development boards are not meant to be "funny", they're meant to expose all
the features of a given CPU (or, more commonly SoC).

This is for embedded users, who typically add the processor chip to their own
products, i.e. they are not intended to be end-user personal computers for
general purpose use.

~~~
protomyth
I know they are for embedded systems and sorry if "funny" offended you, but I
keep hearing these companies tell me how good their ARM, MIPS, POWER are going
to be in my server then they ship embedded specific boards. I can go buy a
Intel or AMD board for a PC and write / port software. I'm still waiting for
the same from other manufactures. This is one reason I'm really not sold on
the ARM server boards since every company makes it a pain in the rear to buy
one.

~~~
undersuit
The Nvidia Jetson TX1 comes in mini-itx. Would go great in a nice case like
the m350.

~~~
protomyth
Is the memory expandable on that board?

~~~
undersuit
Nope, the memory is soldered onto the board.

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ex3ndr
Can this be used in production? To make NSA-free servers?

~~~
creshal
Eventually, in a few years, once hardware and software is actually available…
and assuming neither the NSA nor anyone else introduces hardware backdoors in
the factory. Have fun looking for sabotaged transistors in a 28 or 14nm chip.

~~~
nickik
At the moment we have so many other problems that security in the production
is barly on the radar. If we are at a point were production is the major
secuirty problem, we are in a good place.

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SuperGent
[he] sported a beard that is a sign he is well along in working on his next-
generation Epiphany processor.

Thats where I'm going wrong..

~~~
happycube
More seriously, a RISC-V Epiphany would be quite cool, and potentially quite a
bit more mainstreamish than the current one.

