lowRISC is a fantastic initiative to build a fully open source, Linux-capable, 64-bit RISC-V based system-on-chip. Not only this, but a SoC design with additional interesting features such as programmable I/O — think along the lines of XMOS devices — and tagged memory.
At the present time the design can be targeted to FPGA, but there are plans for volume silicon and a low cost development board that utilises this. In this interview filmed in April of last year, lowRISC Director and Co-founder, Alex Bradbury, introduces the project, its aims and associated challenges, and encourages potential contributors to get involved.
Alex will be providing a lowRISC project update at ORConf in Hebden Bridge in a little under two weeks. You should definitely get along if you can!
Andrew Back has in excess of 20 years industry experience that spans IT infrastructure, telecommunications and electronics, and covering R&D through to architecture, strategy and governance.