OpenISA has officially launched the VEGAboard microcontroller development board, based on the PULP Platform’s RI5CY and Zero-RI5CY RISC-V core, and it’s giving them away to encourage adoption of the free instruction set architecture (ISA).

Developed in partnership with the Parallel Ultra Low Power (PULP) Platform, Express Logic, Foundries.io, Ashling, IAR Systems, and Segger, the OpenISA VEGAboard is powered by an NXP Semiconductors RV32M1 chip which combines Arm Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M4 CPUs with RI5CY and Zero-RI5CY cores on a single board. The design also includes an on-board radio with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), generic frequency-shift keying (FSK), and IEEE 802.15.4 support, operating in the 2.36-2.48 GHz range.

Each board includes 4MB of serial flash memory, visible light sensor, a digital sensor with accelerometer and magnetometer, an OpenSDA serial and debug adapter, a user-accessible RGB LED, and four push-button switches, along with a printed F-antenna with SMA connector for optional external antenna. Connectivity to external hardware is provided via Arduino-compatible input/output headers.

To encourage RISC-V adoption, OpenISA has announced that it is to give away a limited number of boards free of charge – though, at present, the offer is restricted to the US. Full details, and a link to order a board, can be found on the official website, while documentation and a software development kit is available on GitHub.

Article image courtesy of PULP Platform.