The first Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) SoC to support the royalty-free RISC-V open instruction set architecture (ISA) has entered volume production, marking an important milestone in the evolution of embedded processors.
As customers continue to adopt PolarFire SoC FPGAs At an accelerated pace, Microchip Technology is announcing production qualification of the MPFS250T and the previously announced MPFS025T.
Microchip also claims that its Mi-V ecosystem continues to accelerate the adoption of RISC-V, enabling a new class of smaller, more power-efficient and less expensive industrial, IoT and other edge computing products.
“We now have a deep pipeline of customers who have designed the PolarFire SoC family with our suite of Mi-V tools and solutions,” said Shakeel Peera, vice president of marketing for Microchip’s FPGA business unit. “These customers have developed innovative products that bring best-in-class solutions to market with superior thermal and power efficiency, as well as unprecedented computing power in small form factors.”
Peera added: “We are now writing a new chapter in the RISC-V story with the availability of production-qualified PolarFire SoC devices.”
PolarFire SoC FPGAs unlock new configurable processing opportunities with their real-time, Linux-compatible RISC-V-based microprocessor subsystem in a fast FPGA framework, backed by Microchip's commitment to a long-term product roadmap and availability . They also take advantage of customizations enabled by the open RISC-V ISA standard to improve power efficiency, security, and reliability compared to alternative processing options – while introducing valuable new features such as deterministic Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) mode. ), allowing users to run a Linux operating system while running a real-time application at peak performance.
PolarFire SoC innovation enables new solutions to challenges such as improving computational power efficiency and providing computational acceleration at the network edge and providing unparalleled capabilities for communications, defense, medical and industrial automation applications.
The Mi-V ecosystem is equally important to RISC-V adoption, encompassing a comprehensive array of IP, hardware, operating systems, middleware, debuggers, compilers, and design services. More than two dozen partners are working with Microchip to continually expand this low-cost assessment platform and accelerate project implementation across a variety of industries.
It removes barriers to entry, enabling embedded engineers, software designers, and hardware developers to take advantage of the RISC-V ISA and PolarFire SoC FPGA combination of small form factors, thermal efficiency, and low power consumption.
“Microchip’s PolarFire SoC FPGA and Mi-V ecosystem provides an excellent platform to evaluate a Linux-compatible RISC-V-based multicore SoC,” said Calista Redmond, CEO – RISC-V International. “The market now has a production-qualified RISC-V solution to purchase and adopt in your projects. The FPGA framework is an innovative platform that enables hardware acceleration for system design.”