Project Aims To Build a Fully Open SoC and Dev Board

DeviceGuru (1136715) writes "A non-profit company is developing an open source 64-bit system-on-chip that will enable fully open hardware, 'from the CPU core to the development board.' The 'lowRISC' SoC is the brainchild of a team of hardware and software hackers from the University of Cambridge, with the stated goal of implementing a 'fully open computing eco-system, including the instruction set architecture (ISA), processor silicon, and development boards.' The lowRISC's design is based on a new 64-bit RISC-V ISA, developed at UC Berkeley. The RISC-V core design has now advanced enough for the lowRISC project to begin designing an SoC around it. Prototype silicon of a 'RISC-V Rocket' core itself has already been benchmarked at UC Berkeley, with results results (on GitHub) suggesting that in comparison to a 32-bit ARM Cortex-A5 core, the RISC-V core is faster, smaller, and uses less power. And on top of that it's open source. Oh, and there's a nifty JavaScript-based RISC-V simulator that runs in your browser."

Comments

Hackers?

[danknight48]

is the brainchild of a team of hardware and software hackers from the University of Cambridge

All credit to this news article, and, my interest in this project just vanished.

Seriously need to be careful how you use the word "hackers".
For some of us it means the ability to "steal/control in the use of electronic methods and devices".
And the unlucky new generation, well, it means how to make a button on your raspberry Pi.