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Question: for someone without assembly background, what would be the best resource to get started with RISC-V?

by sirn 8y ago

thethirdone 8y ago
Off the top of my head, I don't know of any good books or tutorials. When I was working on this full-time, there wasn't a good way to learn in a comprehensive manner. Some instructions were incredibly unclear even looking at the specification. If you were familiar with other RISC assembly, I think making a simple project using RARS (or other simulator) would be a pretty good way to get a baseline understanding. Compiling C applications to risc-v assembly can also be helpful.
meuk 8y ago
Specify 'getting started with'. You can buy a microcontroller, program it in C and be completely oblivious to the architecture. If you want to understand RISC-V itself there's the specification, which is free and very readable.
- thethirdone 8y ago
  > If you want to understand RISC-V itself there's the specification, which is free and very readable. Having spent a fair amount of time reading and referring to the specification, I definitely would not recommend it for someone who isn't familiar with assembly. It is free though, so giving it a shot might be worth it.
  - sirn 8y ago
    OK thanks, I'll give it a shot.
  - ci5er 8y ago
    Serious question- what kind of programmer is not familiar with assembly? I'm old - and binary is how one would bootstrap a new computer, and assembly was an hll.
    - darkwinx 8y ago
      I believe many programmer today did not familiar with assembly. A lot of them started with web development.
    - sirn 8y ago
      There are many programming fields these day that assembly are more of a nice-to-have than a must. For example web programming where it's not entirely uncommon to find someone only familiar with JavaScript, or enterprise Java where it's more important to know about design patterns than how to code, etc.
- sirn 8y ago
  I have a little bit of knowledge of assembly, but have never done anything significant with it. I'm thinking that playing with RISC-V assembly might be the way to get myself comfortable with assembly and also get myself into the RISC-V ecosystem. I'll take a look at the RISC-V specification. Thanks!
rehemiau 8y ago
Maybe this book: Computer Organization and Design - RISC-V Edition ? On Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Organization-Design-RISC-V-Architecture/dp/0128122757 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Organization-Design-RISC-V...
- thethirdone 8y ago
  Thats probably a decent way to get into it if you don't mind the price tag. I have an older version that uses MIPS. If the parent also isn't familiar with how CPUs and caching works and wants to learn that along with RISC-V assembly it is probably a good bet.
jecel 8y ago
https://riscv.org/risc-v-books/ https://riscv.org/risc-v-books/ This list has three books, including the one recommended elsewhere in this thread. There is a much cheaper introduction as well.
matt_d 8y ago
Here's a collection of RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture resources: https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.riscv.md https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.risc... Assembly tutorials: https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.riscv.md#tutorials https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.risc...

Question: for someone without assembly background, what would be the best resource to get started with RISC-V?

by sirn 8y ago

Question: for someone without assembly background, what would be the best resource to get started with RISC-V?

Off the top of my head, I don't know of any good books or tutorials. When I was working on this full-time, there wasn't a good way to learn in a comprehensive manner. Some instructions were incredibly unclear even looking at the specification. If you were familiar with other RISC assembly, I think making a simple project using RARS (or other simulator) would be a pretty good way to get a baseline understanding. Compiling C applications to risc-v assembly can also be helpful.

meuk 8y ago

Specify 'getting started with'. You can buy a microcontroller, program it in C and be completely oblivious to the architecture. If you want to understand RISC-V itself there's the specification, which is free and very readable.

thethirdone 8y ago
> If you want to understand RISC-V itself there's the specification, which is free and very readable. Having spent a fair amount of time reading and referring to the specification, I definitely would not recommend it for someone who isn't familiar with assembly. It is free though, so giving it a shot might be worth it.
- sirn 8y ago
  OK thanks, I'll give it a shot.
- ci5er 8y ago
  Serious question- what kind of programmer is not familiar with assembly? I'm old - and binary is how one would bootstrap a new computer, and assembly was an hll.
  - darkwinx 8y ago
    I believe many programmer today did not familiar with assembly. A lot of them started with web development.
  - sirn 8y ago
    There are many programming fields these day that assembly are more of a nice-to-have than a must. For example web programming where it's not entirely uncommon to find someone only familiar with JavaScript, or enterprise Java where it's more important to know about design patterns than how to code, etc.
sirn 8y ago
I have a little bit of knowledge of assembly, but have never done anything significant with it. I'm thinking that playing with RISC-V assembly might be the way to get myself comfortable with assembly and also get myself into the RISC-V ecosystem. I'll take a look at the RISC-V specification. Thanks!

rehemiau 8y ago

Maybe this book: Computer Organization and Design - RISC-V Edition ? On Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Organization-Design-RISC-V-Architecture/dp/0128122757 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Organization-Design-RISC-V...

thethirdone 8y ago
Thats probably a decent way to get into it if you don't mind the price tag. I have an older version that uses MIPS. If the parent also isn't familiar with how CPUs and caching works and wants to learn that along with RISC-V assembly it is probably a good bet.

jecel 8y ago

https://riscv.org/risc-v-books/ https://riscv.org/risc-v-books/ This list has three books, including the one recommended elsewhere in this thread. There is a much cheaper introduction as well.

matt_d 8y ago

Here's a collection of RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture resources: https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.riscv.md https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.risc... Assembly tutorials: https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.riscv.md#tutorials https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.risc...