New Approaches For Processor Architectures


Processor vendors are starting to emphasize microarchitectural improvements and data movement over process node scaling, setting the stage for much bigger performance gains in devices that narrowly target what end users are trying to accomplish. The changes are a recognition that domain specificity, and the ability to adjust or adapt designs to unique workloads, are now the best way to impro... » read more

The Difference Between Processor Configuration And Customization


For many years, people have been talking about configuring processor IP cores, but especially with growing interest in the open RISC-V ISA, there is much more talk about customization. So, what is the difference? A simple analogy is to think of ordering a pizza. With most pizzerias, you have standard bases and a choice of toppings from a limited list. You can configure the pizza to the ... » read more

Working With RISC-V


RISC-V is coming on strong, but working with this open-source processor core isn't as simple as plugging in a commercial piece of IP. Zdenek Prikryl, CTO at Codasip, talks about utilizing hypervisors and open source tools and extensions to the RISC-V instruction set architecture, where design teams can run into problems, what will change as the architecture becomes more mature, the difference b... » read more

A RISC-V in-network accelerator for flexible high-performance low-power packet processing


Find the technical paper link here. Abstract "The capacity of offloading data and control tasks to the network is becoming increasingly important, especially if we consider the faster growth of network speed when compared to CPU frequencies. In-network compute alleviates the host CPU load by running tasks directly in the network, enabling additional computation/communication overlap and pot... » read more

Designing Chips In A ‘Lawless’ Industry


The guideposts for designing chips are disappearing or becoming less relevant. While engineers today have many more options for customizing a design, they have little direction about what works best for specific applications or what the return on investment will be for those efforts. For chip architects, this is proving to be an embarrassment of riches. However, that design freedom comes wit... » read more

RISC-V Verification: The 5 Levels Of Simulation-Based Processor Hardware DV


By Lee Moore and Simon Davidmann The RISC-V open standard ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) offers developers the opportunity to configure the features and functions of a custom processor to uniquely address their target end application needs and requirements. RISC-V has a modular structure with many standard instruction extensions for additional dedicated hardware features such as Floating... » read more

Sweeping Changes Ahead For Systems Design


Data centers are undergoing a fundamental change, shifting from standard processing models to more data-centric approaches based upon customized hardware, less movement of data, and more pooling of resources. Driven by a flood of web searches, Bitcoin mining, video streaming, data centers are in a race to provide the most efficient and fastest processing possible. But because there are so ma... » read more

Is RISC-V The Future?


Is RISC-V the future? This is a question that we often get asked, and let’s assume that we mean ‘is RISC-V going to be the dominant ISA in the processor market?’ This is certainly an unfolding situation and has changed significantly in the last five years. RISC-V originated at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010 and took a number of years to get traction with industry. A bi... » read more

A Methodology To Verify Functionality, Security, And Trust for RISC-V Cores


Modern processor designs present some of the toughest hardware verification challenges. These challenges are especially acute for RISC-V processor core designs, with a wide range of variations and implementations available from a plethora of sources. This paper describes a verification methodology available to both RISC-V core providers and system-on-chip (SoC) teams integrating these cores. It... » read more

Debug: The Schedule Killer


Debug often has been labeled the curse of management and schedules. It is considered unpredictable and often can happen close to the end of the development cycle, or even after – leading to frantic attempts at work-arounds. And the problem is growing. "Historically, about 40% of time is spent in debug, and that aspect is becoming more complex," says Vijay Chobisa, director of product manag... » read more

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