New Linux-capable RISC-V Soft Cores for Achronix FPGAs

Achronix has recently announced a strategic partnership with Bluespec to introduce a new family of Linux-capable RISC-V soft processors tailored for the Speedster7t FPGA family. This collaboration aims to provide engineers with enhanced flexibility and scalability in integrating processing capabilities into their designs.

According to Achronix, Bluespec's RISC-V processors are now seamlessly integrated into the Achronix 2D network-on-chip architecture. This integration simplifies the design process and empowers engineers to incorporate scalable processing solutions efficiently. The network-on-chip architecture enables the addition of multiple instances of the RISC-V core, which can be dynamically relocated within the FPGA fabric while maintaining optimal performance.

Engineers can leverage this innovative solution to run C/C++ applications either on bare metal or operating systems on hardware subsystems. The processors can be individually configured with floating-point instructions, custom instructions, and hardware accelerators, offering a high degree of customization and versatility.

The RISC-V soft processors come in two variants: RV32I or RV64I, featuring pipelines with up to five stages. Additionally, developers can incorporate extensions for multiplication, atomic operations, compressed code, single-precision floating point, or double-precision floating point operations. The processors support different privilege levels, including user, supervisor, and machine modes.

Bluespec claims a maximum operating frequency of 225MHz for the RISC-V cores, with an impressive performance metric of 1.72 Coremark/MHz. The high bandwidth facilitated by the network-on-chip architecture enables the RISC-V cores to efficiently access large datasets from memory interfaces or external I/O. This capability is particularly beneficial for data-intensive applications such as machine learning inference, high-speed packet processing, and real-time analytics.

For more information and to explore the range of RISC-V cores offered through this collaboration, visit the official web page.