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New Electronics editorial advisory panel
Trevor Cross, chief technology officer, Teledyne e2v
Pete Leonard, electronics design manager, Renishaw
Pete Lomas, director of engineering, Norcott Technologies
Neil Riddiford, principal electronics engineer, Cambridge
Consultants
Adam Taylor, embedded systems consultant
ISSN 0047-9624 Online ISSN 2049-2316
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NEWS RISC-V
Microchip looks to leverage RISC-V ISA
THE FIRST SOC FPGA DEVELOPMENT KIT BASED ON THE RISC-V INSTRUCTION
SET ARCHITECTURE IS NOW AVAILABLE. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
With the news that Arm is likely to be bought by Nvidia,
there is undoubtedly going to be growing interest in the
adoption of the free and open RISC-V Instruction Set
Architecture (ISA).
With the need for an affordable, standardised
development platform that embeds RISC-V technology
and leverages its diverse ecosystem, Microchip has
announced that it is now offering the first RISC-V based
System on Chip (SoC) Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development kit for the PolarFire SoC
FPGA.
Microchip’s Icicle Development Kit brings together numerous Mi-V partners to accelerate
customer design deployment and commercial adoption across a number of industries.
Designers who want to deploy a programmable RISC-V-based SOC FPGA will be able to start
development and evaluate the broad network of RISC-V ecosystem products such as Real-Time
Operating Systems (RTOS), debuggers, compilers, System On Modules (SOMs) and security
solutions. The Mi-V RISC-V Partner Ecosystem is continuing to expand, and Microchip and
numerous third parties have developed a comprehensive suite of tools and design resources to
fully support RISC-V designs.
“Microchip is enabling a transformation in processor design as the market embraces RISC-V
software and silicon,” said Bruce Weyer, vice president of the Field-Programmable Gate Array
business unit at Microchip. “We are removing barriers to entry through a low-cost evaluation
platform that will give embedded engineers, software designers and hardware developers a vehicle
to implement designs that leverage the benefits of the open RISC-V ISA combined with Microchip’s
best-in-class form factors, thermals and low-power characteristics of PolarFire SoC FPGAs.”
“Microchip’s Icicle Kit, with an embedded PolarFire SoC, will accelerate advances in the RISC-V
software ecosystem and will be a boon to applications that need a low-power mid-range SoC FPGA,”
said David Patterson, vice-chair of the RISC-V International board of directors.
SOT-MRAM pioneer Antaios secures funding
Antaios, a French company working on the development of SOT-MRAM
technology (Spin-Orbit Torque Magnetic Random-Access Memory), has
announced that it has secured $11 million in funding to accelerate
innovation and develop new strategic partnerships.
SOT-MRAM has the potential, according to the company, to be deployed in almost every chip,
becoming a candidate for the long-awaited universal (embedded) memory.
The investment comes from technology funds focused on identifying and fostering promising,
fast-growth, early-stage technology companies and includes Silicon Valley-based Applied Ventures,
the venture capital arm of Applied Materials.
“This funding is a key milestone for Antaios, asserting the value of our technology and the
industry’s interest for SOT as the next-generation MRAM, which solves the limitations of its current
implementations,” said Jean-Pierre Nozières, CEO of Antaios.
Michael Stewart, Investment Director at Applied Ventures added, “Applied Ventures supports the
continued development of logic-based embedded memory technologies like MRAM that offer low
power, high performance and high endurance for Internet of Things and edge AI devices.”
By enabling simultaneously high operating speed and infinite read/write endurance, SOT has the
potential to replace both embedded Non-Volatile Memory and embedded cache in microcontrollers,
microprocessors and System-on-Chip designs.
SOT is described as the next generation MRAM, beyond Spin-Transfer Torque (STT) which is
currently ramping up at all major semiconductor foundries.
SOT is said to be easily implemented on STT-MRAM manufacturing lines, which would then
support a quick market deployment in applications as diverse as Internet of Things (IoT), mobile,
computing and storage.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 22 September 2020 7
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