4 ms·

While they could easily drop in a BOOM core, there would be some very non-trivial costs for SiFive to verify the IP and tune up the performance and feature set

While they could easily drop in a BOOM core, there would be some very non-trivial costs for SiFive to verify the IP and tune up the performance and feature set to match their costumers' needs. A lot of work has been put into Rocket once it made the transition from academic to professional and they would have to do that again for BOOM.

jabl 9y ago
Also, there was quite recently a BOOMv2 paper describing some improvements, and hints of low-hanging fruits for further work. So I wouldn't be surprised if we'd have at least BOOMv3 before anybody commits to taping it out on ASIC.
- monocasa 9y ago
  The BOOMv2 authors apparently had taped it out in TSMC 28 nm HPM.
- phkahler 9y ago
  You just wrote that in response to a comment by one of the BOOM and BOOMv2 creators. And yes, there was more than just hints at low hanging fruit, so I'm hoping a v3 is in the works. But all those guys seem to be incredibly busy just giving birth to this (risc-v) thing. BTW, just to put it in writing I'm estimating the BOOMv2 clock at 2.5GHz on 28nm. Depending how much IPC they clawed back it might match the A15 on coremark.
  - jabl 9y ago
    > You just wrote that in response to a comment by one of the BOOM and BOOMv2 creators. Oh. Oops.. :)