Author: Gareth Halfacree

Gareth Halfacree is a technology journalist and technical author best known for his work on the Raspberry Pi User Guide and an upcoming book covering the BBC’s micro:bit project. A keen open source advocate and RISC-V fan, Gareth is responsible for curating our fortnightly community round-up posts.

Plan 9 Foundation Aims to Bring Bell Labs’ Distributed Operating System to a Wider Audience

Plan 9, the distributed operating system which originated at Bell Labs, has received a shot in the arm courtesy of the formation of the Plan 9 Foundation, founded with a view to coordinating development and promoting use of the platform. “We are pleased to announce the creation of the Plan… Read More

Alibaba’s T-Head Releases Full Android 10 Port for RISC-V

T-Head, the semiconductor division of Alibaba, has released the source code for a functional port of Android 10 to the RISC-V architecture – including a guide to getting it up and running in the QEMU emulator. The earliest success in porting the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) version of Android… Read More

Open-Hardware BeagleV, at $149, is the Most Affordable RISC-V Linux Computer Yet

BeagleBoard.org and Seeed Studio, in partnership with StarFive, have opened applications for an open-source, highly-affordable, Linux-capable RISC-V single-board computer: the $149 BeagleV. Launching with an initial pilot production batch in late March to early April, the BeagleV is an open-source single-board computer built around a StarFive system-on-chip implementing SiFIve’s U74… Read More

RISC-V Gets an Early, Minimal Android 10 Port Courtesy of PLCT Lab

PLCT Lab, a group working on compilers, runtimes, and emulators, has announced a milestone for its effort to port the Android Open Source project to the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture: a successful minimal boot, with step-by-step instructions for trying it out yourself. With increasing interest in using… Read More

BBC Picks SiFive’s RISC-V-Powered HiFive Inventor for Doctor Who Coding Push

The BBC has announced a partnership with SiFive to bring RISC-V-powered development to kids around the world with the launch of the BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor educational development board and supporting coursework bundle. Announced late last year, the SiFive Learn Inventor is a hand-shaped educational development board inspired… Read More

SHAKTI Announces Third Silicon Success with the Arduino-Compatible Moushik

The SHAKTI free and open source silicon project has reached another milestone with the boot up of the Moushik, an Arduino-compatible system-on-chip (SoC) and the group’s third successful silicon tape-out. The SHAKTI project first announced its success in booting Linux on a home-grown RISC-V based processor back in 2018,… Read More

IBM Contributes Open-Source A2O POWER Core, Open-CE to the OpenPOWER Foundation

The OpenPOWER Foundation has announced two more IBM projects which have been moved to an open-source licence, following on the heels of opening the POWER instruction set architecture (ISA) itself. Announced this week at the OpenPOWER Summit 2020, IBM is contributing a the A2O out-of-order processor core with supporting FPGA… Read More

SiFive Announces FU740-Based RISC-V PC, Plans to Grow the RISC-V Ecosystem

RISC-V pioneer SiFive has announced its intention to encourage growth of the RISC-V developer ecosystem with the release of a ready-to-run off-the-shelf RISC-V-powered personal computer built on its FU740 processor – offering a turnkey alternative to the current raft of do-it-yourself options. The free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture… Read More

Lattice Semiconductor Embraces Open Hardware, Launches “Community Sourced” Portal

Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) expert Lattice Semiconductor has embraced the ethos of the open hardware community, creating a portal which lists what the company describes as “community sourced” open hardware development boards and reference designs. “In addition to proprietary boards developed by Lattice and other partners there is a broad… Read More

DIN SPEC 3105, Published Under an Open Licence, “Writes a New Chapter” for Open Hardware

The German Institute for Standardisation (Deutsches Institut für Normung, DIN) has published a formal specification, DIN SPEC 3105, for open source hardware documentation – and the specification itself is open, and the first to be published under a Creative Commons licence. Released as part of a pilot program which sees… Read More

EDeA Project Aims to Make Sharing, Using KiCad “Subcircuits” as Easy as Possible

KiCad users may soon be able to easily share, download, and assemble subcircuits into open-hardware projects thanks to a new initiative dubbed EdeA. “There is a growing Open Hardware movement, a diverse bunch of people with intimidating skill levels, and they are reimplementing the wheel over and over,” explains pseudonymous… Read More

Microchip Opens Orders for RISC-V-Powered, Linux-Capable PolarFire SoC Icicle Board

Microchip has opened orders for its PolarFire SoC Icicle development board, offering end-users the first access to its combined RISC-V and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) system-on-chip – and the ability to build a Linux-capable RISC-V system. Announced late last year, the PolarFire SoC combines Microchip’s PolarFire family of low-power FPGAs… Read More