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I kind of wonder why Nordic bothered sticking with arm cores at all. The competition isnt

by bfrog 2y ago

IshKebab 2y ago
They'll probably replace them but given they had no RISC-V expertise I imagine they made these small coprocessors first in order to gain experience. You can't magically do everything all at once.
eschneider 2y ago
Ok, I'm on a project that just picked N54 processors for a set of new designs. W/O arm cores it wouldn't even be considered. The RISC-V cores are useful and will be put to work, but they aren't exactly a selling point. Why did we end up with N54s? Price, Performance, BLE6 support, PRICE.
janice1999 2y ago
A lot of software stacks are still only optimised for ARM. TrustZone is also far more mature and supported than the RISC-V equivalents.
- bfrog 2y ago
  Is TrustZone really all that useful? I haven't had a need for anything like it myself! esp-c6 module parts are like $2-3 and already have an fcc cert, low power, and support all the same protocols I believe. Are nrf54 modules really that cheap? Can I program them natively with Rust yet?
  - jdietrich 2y ago
    If you care at all about security, then yes, it is tremendously useful.
    - bfrog 2y ago
      Care about security in what way? The radio and protocols are all written in C still with the endless CVEs that bring about aren’t they?
- explodingwaffle 2y ago
  What would you consider the “RISC-V equivalent” of TrustZone? Last time I was curious I didn’t find anything. (FWIW I agree with the other commenter that these ""security"" features are useless, and feel to me more like check-box compliance than anything else (Why does TrustZone work with function calls? What’s wrong with IPC! Also, what’s wrong with privileged mode?). Just seems like a bit of a waste of silicon really.)
  - IshKebab 2y ago
    There are some examples listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment
  - jdietrich 2y ago
    MultiZone, OpenMZ, Keystone, maybe Penglai or ProvenCore, I can't really keep up. That answer goes a long way to explaining the appeal of TrustZone.

I kind of wonder why Nordic bothered sticking with arm cores at all. The competition isnt

by bfrog 2y ago

I kind of wonder why Nordic bothered sticking with arm cores at all. The competition isnt

They'll probably replace them but given they had no RISC-V expertise I imagine they made these small coprocessors first in order to gain experience. You can't magically do everything all at once.

eschneider 2y ago

Ok, I'm on a project that just picked N54 processors for a set of new designs. W/O arm cores it wouldn't even be considered. The RISC-V cores are useful and will be put to work, but they aren't exactly a selling point. Why did we end up with N54s? Price, Performance, BLE6 support, PRICE.

janice1999 2y ago

A lot of software stacks are still only optimised for ARM. TrustZone is also far more mature and supported than the RISC-V equivalents.

bfrog 2y ago
Is TrustZone really all that useful? I haven't had a need for anything like it myself! esp-c6 module parts are like $2-3 and already have an fcc cert, low power, and support all the same protocols I believe. Are nrf54 modules really that cheap? Can I program them natively with Rust yet?
- jdietrich 2y ago
  If you care at all about security, then yes, it is tremendously useful.
  - bfrog 2y ago
    Care about security in what way? The radio and protocols are all written in C still with the endless CVEs that bring about aren’t they?
explodingwaffle 2y ago
What would you consider the “RISC-V equivalent” of TrustZone? Last time I was curious I didn’t find anything. (FWIW I agree with the other commenter that these ""security"" features are useless, and feel to me more like check-box compliance than anything else (Why does TrustZone work with function calls? What’s wrong with IPC! Also, what’s wrong with privileged mode?). Just seems like a bit of a waste of silicon really.)
- IshKebab 2y ago
  There are some examples listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment
- jdietrich 2y ago
  MultiZone, OpenMZ, Keystone, maybe Penglai or ProvenCore, I can't really keep up. That answer goes a long way to explaining the appeal of TrustZone.