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Microchip Technology Enters 64-Bit Microprocessor Market (RISC-V)

29 points by dragontamer 2y ago

dragontamer 2y ago
It looks like Microchip is adding a portfolio of RISC-V chips to its lineup. Microchip has a large number of easy-to-use chips, including the 8-bit PIC and AVR families, the 32-bit SAM which includes Cortex-M0, M23, M4, M7 Cortex-A5 and (lol) the ARM9 family (still available today for all the Jazelle fans), and even a bit of a MIPS processor sitting around. It looks like PIC64-GX will be Microchip's RISC-V. ---------- One of the cooler things in this announcement is the confirmation of linux4microchip.com support. linux4sam always was a good resource (and still is today: even for modern chips like SAM9x60). The RISC-V chip in quesrtion is: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/pic64gx1000 https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/pic64gx1000
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
Awesome to see. It'll be interesting to see what the level of support is. Does microchip float their own forked toolchain, or do Linux and Zephyr gain decent upstream support for these systems? As commented already, linux4sam started an extremely strong forward footing for the old Ateml arm chips; if microchip can tap that same kind of smart can-do engineers to get support for pic64 good that would really be a massive turbocharger for this effoet. It's very very interesting & ultra-notable Microchip is shopping space-capable rad-hard editions, for mil use.
- pkaye 2y ago
  NASA JPL had selected Microchip and SiFive for making RISC-V SoC for future space missions so they probably planned to make similar chips for commercial customers. The one for JPL would be a RAD hardened versions.
- brucehoult 2y ago
  Why would you need a forked toolchain when you're using absolutely standards-compliant SiFive RISC-V cores? The same goes for Linux, Zephyr, FreeRTOS, NuttX and others ... all already work fine on RISC-V and have for years. Also, Microchip's MicroSemi division (acquisition in 2018) has long been supplying rad-tolerant and rad-hard FPGAs to the space industry, and MicroSemi has been supporting SiFive cores as a soft core in their FPGAs since 2017 and as a hard core (penta-core 64 bit @ 600-666 MHz) in the PolarFire SoC since 2021.
  - jauntywundrkind 2y ago
    Architecture support seems not risky, sure. Ideally it shouldn't be risky for any RISC-V CPU! What's less clear is everything else. Will this have RISC-V OS-A Platform Specification specification so it is ACPI compatible, or will this require custom baked devicetree for all its uncore? Will that uncore all be sifive provided uncore stuff or is microchip perhaps going to reuse some of their existing peripherals from other efforts? Which peripherals & busses will and won't have support in Linux, Zephyr, and the variety of other rtos? Will that support be upstreamed alike how excellently & persistently linux4sam was? As someone working for sifive I understand you want to present a good image, and I really hope the better cases do emerge here. I'm not worried about your RISC-V core working; it'll be great. I'm worried about how usable the rest of the chip will be & what level of support & upstreaming we'll see for that. Linux4sam is one of very very few arm players that has focused, for almost a decade now, on doing the right thing; most of the embedded ecosystem is fragmentary & not upstreamed & hard to use. Hence my comments & hopes. MicroSemi is definitely well known for some rad capable devices, good call there. But that was for a very different line-up, different offerings. Having a PIC that's targeting such elevated use cases is, to me, quite notable.
    - brucehoult 2y ago
      I don't work for SiFive, and haven't for 4 1/2 years. I'm at a large company that is switching many of their consumer products from Arm to RISC-V.
floxy 2y ago
I wonder who will be first to ship an 8-pin 64-bit microcontroller? It seems like it is only a matter of time.
- dragontamer 2y ago
  This appears to be a 325-pin 0.6mm pitch BGA... or somewhere around that. This is a full bore Linux-capable microprocessor supporting LPDDR4 and 1Gbit Ethernet. No where close to PC level, but maybe close to Rasp. Pi 1 levels.
- UncleOxidant 2y ago
  Is this a reference to the processor in the Aronofsky movie Pi? Always found that scene really funny. They're hyping up this chip as the most powerful chip in the world (called "Ming Mecca") and then the guy opens up the box to show a chip with like 4 pins.
  - floxy 2y ago
    No. I've never seen the movie. We already have 32-bit microcontrollers in 8 pin packages [0]. Seems like 64-bit will also be coming down the pike eventually. If for no other reason than ease of toolchain development. [0] https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32g041j6.html https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32...
    - brucehoult 2y ago
      Mmmm ... CM0, 64 MHz, 8k RAM, 32k flash. I hit "Order direct" and it says "$0.93 | 10ku" which I take to mean you need to spend $9300 to get that price? I added one to my cart and it's $2.04. If you can get by with 48 MHz, 2k RAM, 16k flash then there's the very popular RISC-V CH32V003 for which you need to spend $6.21 to get a $0.12 each price (50 units) [1]. Or for around $0.30 each (qty 20) you can get the CH32V203 with 144 MHz, 20k RAM, 64k flash, and USB. However the smallest package for that seems to be 20 pins. But the '003 is getting very popular for cute little projects. It runs on both 3.3V and 5V, needs no external oscillator or crystal (but can use one), has Single Wire Debug, and is (along with the Puya PY32) the cheapest flash-based microcontroller you can get, allowing you to iterate your code without throwing away a chip every time. A cute little €1 retro computer with PS/2 kb and bit-banged VGA: https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-source-hardware https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-so... A mini game console: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7Z0BodhWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7Z0BodhWk Driving a Nixie tube from USB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d3PgEXhdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d3PgEXhdY [1] https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804850399956.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804850399956.html
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
java-man 2y ago
"These space-grade, 64-bit multicore RISC-V MPUs are designed to deliver over 100 times the computing performance of previous models while maintaining high levels of radiation and fault tolerance." This is good news.
jsheard 2y ago
Points for calling it PIC64, unlike ST who decided to launch their 64bit parts under the STM32 brand for some reason.

29 points by dragontamer 2y ago

It looks like Microchip is adding a portfolio of RISC-V chips to its lineup. Microchip has a large number of easy-to-use chips, including the 8-bit PIC and AVR families, the 32-bit SAM which includes Cortex-M0, M23, M4, M7 Cortex-A5 and (lol) the ARM9 family (still available today for all the Jazelle fans), and even a bit of a MIPS processor sitting around. It looks like PIC64-GX will be Microchip's RISC-V. ---------- One of the cooler things in this announcement is the confirmation of linux4microchip.com support. linux4sam always was a good resource (and still is today: even for modern chips like SAM9x60). The RISC-V chip in quesrtion is: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/pic64gx1000 https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/pic64gx1000

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

Awesome to see. It'll be interesting to see what the level of support is. Does microchip float their own forked toolchain, or do Linux and Zephyr gain decent upstream support for these systems? As commented already, linux4sam started an extremely strong forward footing for the old Ateml arm chips; if microchip can tap that same kind of smart can-do engineers to get support for pic64 good that would really be a massive turbocharger for this effoet. It's very very interesting & ultra-notable Microchip is shopping space-capable rad-hard editions, for mil use.

pkaye 2y ago
NASA JPL had selected Microchip and SiFive for making RISC-V SoC for future space missions so they probably planned to make similar chips for commercial customers. The one for JPL would be a RAD hardened versions.
brucehoult 2y ago
Why would you need a forked toolchain when you're using absolutely standards-compliant SiFive RISC-V cores? The same goes for Linux, Zephyr, FreeRTOS, NuttX and others ... all already work fine on RISC-V and have for years. Also, Microchip's MicroSemi division (acquisition in 2018) has long been supplying rad-tolerant and rad-hard FPGAs to the space industry, and MicroSemi has been supporting SiFive cores as a soft core in their FPGAs since 2017 and as a hard core (penta-core 64 bit @ 600-666 MHz) in the PolarFire SoC since 2021.
- jauntywundrkind 2y ago
  Architecture support seems not risky, sure. Ideally it shouldn't be risky for any RISC-V CPU! What's less clear is everything else. Will this have RISC-V OS-A Platform Specification specification so it is ACPI compatible, or will this require custom baked devicetree for all its uncore? Will that uncore all be sifive provided uncore stuff or is microchip perhaps going to reuse some of their existing peripherals from other efforts? Which peripherals & busses will and won't have support in Linux, Zephyr, and the variety of other rtos? Will that support be upstreamed alike how excellently & persistently linux4sam was? As someone working for sifive I understand you want to present a good image, and I really hope the better cases do emerge here. I'm not worried about your RISC-V core working; it'll be great. I'm worried about how usable the rest of the chip will be & what level of support & upstreaming we'll see for that. Linux4sam is one of very very few arm players that has focused, for almost a decade now, on doing the right thing; most of the embedded ecosystem is fragmentary & not upstreamed & hard to use. Hence my comments & hopes. MicroSemi is definitely well known for some rad capable devices, good call there. But that was for a very different line-up, different offerings. Having a PIC that's targeting such elevated use cases is, to me, quite notable.
  - brucehoult 2y ago
    I don't work for SiFive, and haven't for 4 1/2 years. I'm at a large company that is switching many of their consumer products from Arm to RISC-V.

floxy 2y ago

I wonder who will be first to ship an 8-pin 64-bit microcontroller? It seems like it is only a matter of time.

dragontamer 2y ago
This appears to be a 325-pin 0.6mm pitch BGA... or somewhere around that. This is a full bore Linux-capable microprocessor supporting LPDDR4 and 1Gbit Ethernet. No where close to PC level, but maybe close to Rasp. Pi 1 levels.
UncleOxidant 2y ago
Is this a reference to the processor in the Aronofsky movie Pi? Always found that scene really funny. They're hyping up this chip as the most powerful chip in the world (called "Ming Mecca") and then the guy opens up the box to show a chip with like 4 pins.
- floxy 2y ago
  No. I've never seen the movie. We already have 32-bit microcontrollers in 8 pin packages [0]. Seems like 64-bit will also be coming down the pike eventually. If for no other reason than ease of toolchain development. [0] https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32g041j6.html https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32...
  - brucehoult 2y ago
    Mmmm ... CM0, 64 MHz, 8k RAM, 32k flash. I hit "Order direct" and it says "$0.93 | 10ku" which I take to mean you need to spend $9300 to get that price? I added one to my cart and it's $2.04. If you can get by with 48 MHz, 2k RAM, 16k flash then there's the very popular RISC-V CH32V003 for which you need to spend $6.21 to get a $0.12 each price (50 units) [1]. Or for around $0.30 each (qty 20) you can get the CH32V203 with 144 MHz, 20k RAM, 64k flash, and USB. However the smallest package for that seems to be 20 pins. But the '003 is getting very popular for cute little projects. It runs on both 3.3V and 5V, needs no external oscillator or crystal (but can use one), has Single Wire Debug, and is (along with the Puya PY32) the cheapest flash-based microcontroller you can get, allowing you to iterate your code without throwing away a chip every time. A cute little €1 retro computer with PS/2 kb and bit-banged VGA: https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-source-hardware https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-so... A mini game console: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7Z0BodhWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7Z0BodhWk Driving a Nixie tube from USB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d3PgEXhdY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d3PgEXhdY [1] https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804850399956.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804850399956.html

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

java-man 2y ago

"These space-grade, 64-bit multicore RISC-V MPUs are designed to deliver over 100 times the computing performance of previous models while maintaining high levels of radiation and fault tolerance." This is good news.

jsheard 2y ago

Points for calling it PIC64, unlike ST who decided to launch their 64bit parts under the STM32 brand for some reason.