Seven years ago, the open architecture of RISC-V for developing RISC microprocessors is presented. The command system for the operation of the cores is distributed free of charge and free of license fees. At the same time, not all and not always on time can create topical products even on the base of open platforms. SiFive young company decided to take advantage of this circumstance . In addition, the developers decided to follow the path of the modern model of software distribution. The cores of the company can be tested remotely through the site and there to make the necessary purchase, including the conclusion of a one-time license agreement. Accordingly, all the necessary documentation, digital models, instructions, etc., including subsequent support, are obtained remotely.
SiFive distributes RISC-V-compliant Rocket kernels for free. The purchase of the 32-bit E31 core will cost $ 300,000, and the purchase of the 64-bit E51 core costs $ 600,000. This is not the biggest price for the cores. Today the cost of nuclear power is one million dollars. But SiFive will not then demand license fees for each released controller or processor, as it does with ARM cores and others. Such a model of nuclear distribution will find its buyer, which, as practice shows, a lot in China. By the way, SiFive together with the company NVIDIA conduct next week a seminar in Shanghai, places for which have already been sold out.
It should be noted that the architecture of RISC-V is supported by a number of industry leaders, including companies from Google, HPE, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Samsung. Each of them and many others use kernels or elements of the RISC-V architecture as part of their solutions. Returning to the SiFive cores, we will add, both of them (E31 and E51) operate at a frequency of up to 1.4 GHz. The performance of the 32-bit E31 core roughly corresponds to the capabilities of the ARM Cortex M3 or M4 cores, and the performance of the E51 core is oriented to the middle segment and comes closer to the bottom of the ARM Cortex A53 cores. Both kernels do not support Linux, they work only with FreeRTOS, Project Zephyr and Apache Minute OS. For Linux, the U54 kernel will be introduced later. Separately, the company launched a service to support the development of SoC using branded cores.
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