In July this year, the RISC-V International Open Source Lab (RIOS) released the first RISC-V architecture microcomputer Picorio, which runs Linux system, becomes an open source after the Raspberry Pie.
It is reported that Picorio is built based on the latest RISC-V instruction set, from the CPU design to the PCB board design, and then open to the operating system core software. RIOS said that the Picorio target is based on an open source microcomputer system of the ARM architecture Raspberry Pi (Raspberry).
Challenge Raspberry Party
As the most successful microcomputer, the open source Raspberry Pie has been widely praised by the technological circle and academic circles, and the gods of all walks of life are endless, and they have formed one around this microcomputer. Unique DIY culture, related open source software ecological construction is also very rich. According to statistics, as of December 2019, the global sales of the Raspberry Pie had exceeded 30 million sets.
The industry believes that the success of the Raspberry Party has played a positive role in the promotion of the ARM architecture. Since the world, the Raspberry Party has been sought after by the young generation of techniques with its light and low energy consumption, low cost, and a Raspberry Pavilion 4 2G version is only $ 35. Many young ARM developers are entitled to the Raspberry Party and become a potential technical personnel with ARM hardware and software ecological development.
Compared with the Raspberry Party, Picorio is undoubtedly its open source is more complete: open source 64-bit RISC-V multicore processor chip. In other aspects, according to the official introduction, the PICORIO version 1.0 supports the Linux and Google V8 JavaScript engine. Its expected power consumption (0.5 watt, working 0.5 watts) is lower than the Rabberry 4 (standby 3.4, working 7.6), is more suitable for scenes such as edge computing and Internet of Things terminals for battery life and low energy requirements.
Tan Zhangyi, the RIOS Joint Director Tan said, building a open source hardware platform such as Picorio will bring a very positive role in the promotion of RISC-V.
"Linux in the field of CPU"
As we all know, the current global CPU market is almost two major architectural monopoly of X86 and ARM. Under the mastery of Intel and AMD, the X86 ruled the server, the PC market; and ARM monopolized the mobile and embedded equipment market.
In such an environment, a new instruction set named RISC-V was born in 2010, so that the idea of open source is further extended to the hardware field, and even the pattern of global chip markets.
In 2010, Professor Berkeley's Krste Asanovic, US Berkeley needs to choose a command set for research projects. However, because Intel's authorization of X86 is very strict, ARM's authorization cost is very expensive, so Krste Professor KRSTE decided to lead the team to develop a new instruction set. Krste's team received one of the RISC inventors, Professor David Patterson. Three months later, under the research and development of four members, the prototype of the RISC-V instruction set was born.
Although Krste's team only completed the development of the RISC-V base instruction set, in order to improve a series of expansion instructions and the flow test until 2014, the first version of the RISC-V user manual official release.
Krste Asanovic
The RISC-V instruction set is based on the open instruction set architecture (ISA) established based on the principle of streamlined instruction set (RISC), and RISC-V is a new directive established based on the continuous development and maturity of the instruction set. The RISC-V instruction set is completely open source, simple design, easy to transplant the UNIX system, using modular design, has a complete tool chain, and has a large number of open source implementation and flow cases, has been strongly supported in the community.
Soon, the full-featured and fully open source RISC-V is received by global chip developers. At the beginning of 2016, the non-profit organization RISC-V Foundation was formally established, and Professor Krste Asanovic, found Professor, found Professor, founded by the founder of the founder of the Foundation. The foundation of the Foundation has been added in just two years, there is already more than 150 organizations from the world, including Google, Huawei, Ying Weida, Gao Tong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pollton University, Indian Institute of Technology, and China Institute of Sciences. Enterprises and colleges. Take the open source Dongfeng, RISC-V entered the stage of rapid development. At this time, even people have already begun to call the RISC-V as "Linux in the CPU".
Development of RISC-V in China
In recent years, with the "chip independence", the "chip independence" has become higher and higher, and the characteristics of RISC-V open source have naturally been concerned with domestic developers.
In 2018, China Open Instruction Ecology (RISC-V) Alliance was established, including nearly 20 domestic research institutions and enterprises in China, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Ali - Zhongtian, Baidu, SME International, etc. The director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Ni Guangnan was chairman. The Secretary-General of the League has publicly said: "The RISC-V instruction set is like Linux in the open source software ecology, which has become the cornerstone of computer chip and system innovation."
In November 2019, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Research Institute established RISC-V International Open Source Lab RIOS, which served as the laboratory director by David Patterson, and further promoted the popularity and development of RISC-V in global.
David Patterson
Since the promotion of RISC-V, the domestic technology companies such as Ali Pingge have launched the self-developed chip products based on the RISC-V architecture, breaking the technical monopoly in the chip field for a long time.
Adhere to open governance
RISC-V active in China also reacted in the United States.
In 2019, US Republican Members said that they worried that the United States would lose the influence of the RISC-V chip architecture. The United States believes that the RISC-V architecture can be used to make microprocessors for almost every type of electronic device, making it an important part of the modern economy.
The US Department of Commerce said in a statement on Reuters, its control measures aimed to maintain the national security of the United States, and "ensure that bad behavior cannot obtain technologies that harm American citizens or interests, and promote innovation to promote the US continued technology leading position".
Taking into account a series of issues triggered by CDM, in order to maintain the neutrality of the project, the RISC-V Foundation will move in the United States in Switzerland in March 2020. RISC-V CEO Calista Redmond said in an interview with Reuters, "I hope to make sure that the university outside the United States can help develop RISC-V open source technology. Since its creation, Chinese companies can use RISC-V Architecture, the architecture is publicly available. "
Calista said that global cooperation of the Foundation has not yet been restricted, but members are worried about possible geopolitical damage. " She explained: "In all parts of the world, we all heard about 'If the company is not in the United States, we will be more in'."
future
While opening source software sweeps the world, the open source code hardware foundation is also steadily developing, and RISC-V known as "chip world Linux" is the most hot project. As an emerging open source chip architecture, RISC-V current ecology is still in a primary stage, but it has benefited from the open source guidelines that have always adhered to open governance, attracting a large number of scientific and technological giants, and the development of ecological construction is very fast.
With the current huge wave of RISC-V in the industry, many industry people are very optimistic about RISC-V can break the monopoly of ARM and X86 in the future. The emergence of Picorio is an important step in RISC-V to the popularity of young developers.
"RISC-V is very good, in addition to its own technical value, its openness determines the industrialization of it can be easily." China's open directive Eco-alliance chairman Ni Guangnan said, "China's new generation information technology, For example, big data, 5G, Internet of Things, VR, edge calculation can try to use RISC-V, all the world knows that China's products are very cheap, cost-effective, everyone is used, then RISC-V's CPU will be in the world It becomes mainstream in the range. "
Reprinted from the Chinese Industry Information Station.
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