S2C announced that the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip (BOSC) adopted its Prodigy S7-19P Logic System, a VU19P-based FPGA prototyping solution, in the development of the “XiangShan” RISC-V processor. This not only accelerates processor iteration but also enables companies to develop high-end chips based on “XiangShan” processor.
RISC-V, an open instruction set architecture, has increasingly become the focus of global processor development. Among them, “XiangShan”, a high-performance open-source RISC-V processor core, is considered an international leading representative of the RISC-V industry. Since the launch of its first generation, “XiangShan” has received over 2,500 stars and 277 forks on GitHub, making it one of the most followed open-source hardware projects internationally. To date, “XiangShan” has launched two generations, with the third generation under development. Industry-leading companies are collaborating on further development around “XiangShan” to create demonstration applications and accelerate the RISC-V ecosystem.
To promote the “XiangShan” project, S2C provided the Prodigy S7-19P Logic System, an FPGA prototype to test software functions and performance on hardware. This allows the software and hardware engineers of “XiangShan” to work at the same time, significantly accelerating the developing process. S7-19P offers flexibility and scalability, satisfying various design and application requirements. A representative from BOSC added, “Due to the diversity of RISC-V, customers need to evaluate different RISC-V cores when choosing. S2C’s FPGA prototyping enables us to effectively showcase processor performance by conducting SPEC benchmarking, IO verification, and BSP driver development. S2C’s solution covers the entire cycle from hardware design to software integration. This makes it easier for our clients to choose the most suitable solution and promotes further development based on the ‘XiangShan’ core.”
SPEC Benchmark:
Once there’s a hardware design, SPEC benchmarking can be conducted to verify whether the expected performance is achieved. By leveraging S2C’s Prodigy, the “XiangShan” team evaluates the performance by running Linux with a graphical interface. This provided the team with valuable feedback, enabling optimizations to meet or exceed expected performance.
I/O Verification:
I/O (Input/Output) verification ensures correct and efficient communication between the chip and its external environment, such as other chips and systems. S2C’s Prodigy provided an actual environment for testing and verifying all input/output communication channels in XiangShan. This ensures seamless integration and communication of “XiangShan” with other hardware components, like memory, storage, and other interfaces. During the setup of the entire verification system, the “XiangShan” team adopted S2C’s daughter cards and interfaces, including PPM, GMAC, and PCIe. The system overall operates at 50MHz, with each interface connected to the “XiangShan” system at their respective standard frequencies.
BSP Driver Development:
BSP (Board Support Package) driver development ensures smooth interaction between software and hardware. With FPGA prototyping, developers can develop and test the BSP on actual hardware, ensuring hardware-software co-development. This parallel approach thereby improves development efficiency and accuracy. As the “XiangShan” processor’s hardware design is implemented on S2C’s FPGA prototyping, the software team immediately embarks on BSP driver development. This method allows the software team to gain a deeper understanding of hardware features and limitations, ensuring hardware design for “XiangShan” before the final tape-out and accelerating software development.
“XiangShan” is an internationally leading high-performance RISC-V processor core.” A representative from the BOSC stated, “S2C’s FPGA prototyping laid a solid foundation for the XiangShan project. We chose S2C because of their outstanding technology and services. They have injected great momentum into our project.”
Mr. Ying Chen, VP of Sales & Marketing at S2C, also commented, “We are glad that our Prodigy FPGA prototyping solutions accelerate XiangShan project and meet a wide range of target market needs. In the future, we will work with more partners to expand the RISC-V community for the prosperity and prospects of the RISC-V ecosystem.”
About Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip
RISC-V has developed rapidly in recent years and become the focus of international scientific and technological competition. To improve China’s IC design level and build a technology platform connected with the international open source community, Beijing City and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have prioritized development in RISC-V, and organized a number of leading domestic enterprises and top scientific research institutes to establish the BOSC on December 6, 2021. The institute gathers the consensus of industrial development with open source and acceptance, stimulates application traction potential through collaborative innovation, and strives to promote integrating the RISC-V innovation chain and industrial chain, as well as accelerate industrialization in scientific and technological innovation achievements, and the creation of the world’s leading industrial ecosystem of RISC-V.
About S2C
S2C is a leading global supplier of FPGA prototyping solutions for today’s innovative SoC and ASIC designs, now with the second largest share of the global prototyping market. S2C has been successfully delivering rapid SoC prototyping solutions since 2003. With over 600 customers, including 6 of the world’s top 10 semiconductor companies, our world-class engineering team and customer-centric sales team are experts at addressing our customer’s SoC and ASIC verification needs. S2C has offices and sales representatives in the US, Europe, mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. For more information, please visit: www.s2cinc.com and more details about vu440, vu13p, vu19p board, vu9p FPGA, etc.
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