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The Blog
October 2017
SiFive — Oct 23, 2017
All Aboard, Part 7: Entering and Exiting the Linux Kernel on RISC-V
Continuing our journey into the RISC-V Linux kernel port, this week we'll discuss context switching. Context switching is one of the more important parts of an architecture port: it is all but impossible to completely abstract away the details of entering and exiting the kernel, Since this is on many critical paths (system calls and scheduling) it must go fast, but since it's the one line of protection the kernel has from userspace it must also be secure.
SiFive — Oct 11, 2017
A Core By Any Other Name...
With all apologies to Shakespeare, would a core by any other name still hit the sweet spot in the market for those looking for cost-effective custom silicon?
SiFive — Oct 10, 2017
Welcome - The SiFive Download, Part III
Earlier this month, we took a huge step in democratizing access to custom silicon when we unveiled our newest core, the U54-MC Coreplex - the industry’s first RISC-V based, 64-bit, quadcore application processor with support for full featured operating systems including Linux, Unix and FreeBSD.
SiFive — Oct 9, 2017
All Aboard, Part 6: Booting a RISC-V Linux Kernel
This post begins a short detour into Linux land, during which we'll be discussing the RISC-V Linux kernel port. SiFive has recently announced the Linux-capable U54-MC RISC-V Core IP, and our Linux port was recently submitted to linux-next, Linux's staging branch, so assuming that everything goes smoothly we should be merged at the end of the next merge window. Along with Linux we should soon have the full suite of core system components upstream, both for embedded systems (via binutils, GCC, and newlib) and larger (via binutils, GCC, glibc, and Linux).
SiFive — Oct 6, 2017
Introducing the U54-MC RISC-V Core IP – The First RISC-V Core with Linux Support
Since we launched the industry’s first open-source RISC-V SoC back in July of last year, we’ve had the pleasure of pushing the boundaries of the RISC-V ecosystem and have been delighted by the support that SiFive – and RISC-V – has gained from system designers and Makers alike.