By: Gabriele Svelto (gabriele.svelto.delete@this.gmail.com), November 3, 2019 2:20 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
anon (anon.delete@this.anon.com) on November 2, 2019 1:46 am wrote:
> If that is arguable then you should have some sources with evidence to show how widespread it
> is. I have not heard anything much except quite a few companies looking at it, and some (WD)
> looking to move their controllers to it. Haven't heard how far along those efforts are.
Western Digitial has already started using RISC-V across multiple products, not only the opened up their designs but also their CC fabric (link).
nVidia is using RISC-V controllers both in their GPUs and in other products (link).
Those were just the most visible use case but most of RISC-V uses are to replace custom cores such as the ones sold by Tensilica. Practically every vendor of RISC-V cores (Andes, Codasip, Syntacore, IQonIC) is offering customized cores for roles such as DSPs, C&C and other forms of hardware acceleration. Those aren't general purpose cores so you won't find them in SoCs running a GP OS but they're shipping in products nonetheless.
> Also what does "deeply" embedded mean?
It means that the core is shipped within an ASIC that is not available for sale outside of the companies products. I.e. it's not a stand-alone product that you can buy for other applications such as a mobile SoC. WD and nVidia uses are very good examples. You can buy a WD SSD which will have RISC-V cores in its controller, but the controller itself won't be available as a stand-alone product.
> If that is arguable then you should have some sources with evidence to show how widespread it
> is. I have not heard anything much except quite a few companies looking at it, and some (WD)
> looking to move their controllers to it. Haven't heard how far along those efforts are.
Western Digitial has already started using RISC-V across multiple products, not only the opened up their designs but also their CC fabric (link).
nVidia is using RISC-V controllers both in their GPUs and in other products (link).
Those were just the most visible use case but most of RISC-V uses are to replace custom cores such as the ones sold by Tensilica. Practically every vendor of RISC-V cores (Andes, Codasip, Syntacore, IQonIC) is offering customized cores for roles such as DSPs, C&C and other forms of hardware acceleration. Those aren't general purpose cores so you won't find them in SoCs running a GP OS but they're shipping in products nonetheless.
> Also what does "deeply" embedded mean?
It means that the core is shipped within an ASIC that is not available for sale outside of the companies products. I.e. it's not a stand-alone product that you can buy for other applications such as a mobile SoC. WD and nVidia uses are very good examples. You can buy a WD SSD which will have RISC-V cores in its controller, but the controller itself won't be available as a stand-alone product.