
Linux Now Has Its First Open Source RISC-V Processor - mkesper
https://www.designnews.com/content/linux-now-has-its-first-open-source-risc-v-processor/71646867257598
======
mkesper
Maybe should have linked here directly:
[https://www.sifive.com/products/coreplex-risc-v-
ip/u54-mc/](https://www.sifive.com/products/coreplex-risc-v-ip/u54-mc/)

~~~
zokier
Which was discussed few days ago here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217)

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tyingq
Would 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/](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".

~~~
gioele
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15400217](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/](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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_intellectual_property_core#Hard_cores)

[2]
[https://bar.eecs.berkeley.edu/projects/2014-rocket_chip.html](https://bar.eecs.berkeley.edu/projects/2014-rocket_chip.html)

[3] [https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-
chip](https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-chip)

~~~
kobeya
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.

~~~
Recurecur
Will this all be on a SOC? Are these plans public?

It'd be great to get some single board computers on the market based on this
architecture...

~~~
kobeya
[https://www.sifive.com/products/freedom/](https://www.sifive.com/products/freedom/)

Scroll down to "Freedom Unleashed".

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laxd
A better written article:
[https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332398](https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332398)

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0xcde4c3db
Maybe 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.

[1] [https://github.com/ucb-bar/riscv-boom](https://github.com/ucb-bar/riscv-
boom)

~~~
_chris_
BOOM is built on top of rocket-chip, both going back to 2011-2012 at Berkeley.
The rocket-chip devs graduated Berkeley and started SiFive.

SiFive still use, update, and commit back to the rocket-chip code base and
have spent resources on verifying the rocket-chip code base and on integrating
other industry IP into their branch of rocket-chip to fit their costumers'
needs.

~~~
tomcam
Mad props to them. That's impressive and very community-minded.

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0xbear
Where can I buy a board with this?

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dmitrygr
Not open. Hardware design is closed and only for sale as a netlist.

