Microchip’s Microsemi unit unveiled a low power, real-time deterministic “PolarFire SoC” architecture for Linux edge devices that combines its PolarFire FPGA with 4x RISC-V CPU cores supplied by SiFive.
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The RISC-V Foundation and the Linux Foundation agreed to a collaboration to accelerate open source development for the open source RISC-V ISA, starting with RISC-V starter guides for Linux and Zephyr.
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[Updated: Nov. 16] — Intrinsyc’s compact “Open-Q 605” SBC for computer vision and edge AI applications runs Android Oreo and Qualcomm’s Vision Intelligence Platform on Qualcomm’s IoT-focused, octa-core QCS605. Also new: an Oreo-based Open-Q 624A Development Kit with a Snapdragon 624.
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Intel has launched a $99 “Neural Compute Stick 2” AI accelerator built around a new Myriad X VPU that adds a Neural Compute Engine and more cores for up to 8x greater performance.
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[Updated: 2PM] — Hangzhou C-SKY has launched a “C-SKY Linux Development Board” for $5.60 and up, featuring a 574MHz GX6605S CK610M SoC, 64MB DDR2 with a novel C-SKY ISA, plus an HDMI port, and 2x USB 2.0 ports.
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Intrinsyc has launched an Android-based Open-Q 2500 SOM module and development kit for smartwatches based on the Snapdragon 2500. Meanwhile, Fossil unveiled the first watch to run Wear OS on the next-gen Snapdragon 3100.
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[Updated: Nov. 10] — Bitmain announced a “Sophon BM1880 EDB” 96Boards CE SBC featuring its new Sophon BM1880 AI chip plus dual Cortex-A53 cores that run Linux. There’s also a RISC-V MCU and optional Raspberry Pi and Arduino modules.
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All signs point to a happy marriage between Linux and RISC-V. At Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Comcast’s Khem Raj gave a presentation that strengthens the case.
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[Updated: Nov. 13] — SiFive announced a new line of RISC-V based, SiFive Core IP 7 Series cores, including the Linux-friendly, Cortex-A55 like U74 and quad-core U74-MC, a variant that adds an MCU for real-time, latency sensitivity.
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Arm has extended its Cortex-M oriented DesignStart program to Cortex-A5 SoCs running Linux. The SoC development platform starts at $75,000 for Cortex-A5 IP access and a year of design support.
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Adlink and Congatec have updated their Coffee Lake based Express-CF and Conga-TS370 COM Express modules, respectively, with Intel’s new Core i3-8100H, an affordable quad-core, 3GHz CPU with a 45W TDP.
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Howchip has launched a sandwich-style, Nano-ITX form factor “ExSOM-8895 DVK” that runs Android 7.0 and Linux 4.4.13 on Samsung’s octa-core Exynos 8895 SoC with 4GB DDR4, dual UFS 2.1 storage interfaces, and MIPI-DSI and -CSI.
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[Updated: Aug. 2] — The Shakti project, based at IIT Madras, has booted Linux on its first RISC-V processor. The 22nm FinFET fabricated, 400MHz Shakti chip can run at 1.67 DMIPS/MHz, and will be commercialized by a startup called InCore.
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DARPA announced the first grants for its $1.5 billion Electronic Resurgence Initiative for accelerating chip development. More than $35 million went to a “Posh Open Source Hardware” project for developing and verifying hardware IP.
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