Microchip introduces a new RISC-V-based SoC FPGA development kit

     The growing adoption of the free and open source RISC-V Instruction set Architecture (ISA) is driving the need for an economical, standardized development platform that is embedded in RISC-V technology and utilizes a diverse RISC-V ecosystem. To meet this demand, Microchip Technology announced the industry's first RISC-V-based SoC FPGA development kit. The Icicle development kit is built for the industry's leading low-power, low-cost, RISC-V-based PolarFire SoC FPGA, bringing together a wide range of Mi-V partners to accelerate customer design deployments and commercial applications in a variety of industries.

     Designers can now begin developing and evaluating a broad range of RISC-V ecosystem products such as real-time operating systems (RTOS), debuggers, compilers, modular systems (SOM), and security solutions, making it easy to deploy RISC-V-based programmable SOC FPGas. The Mi-V RISC-V Partner Ecosystem is an expanding, comprehensive suite of tools and design resources developed by Microchip and numerous third parties to fully support RISC-V design.

     Bruce Weyer, vice president of Microchip's FPGA business unit, said: "With the widespread adoption of RISC-V software and silicon chips in the market, Microchip is leading a revolutionary transformation in processor design. We are removing barriers to entry through a low-cost assessment platform. With this platform, embedded engineers, software designers, and hardware developers can simultaneously leverage the benefits of the open RISC-V ISA and design with Microchip's PolarFire SoC FPGA, which has the industry's best-sized, thermal, and low-power features."

     David Patterson, Vice Chairman of the RISC-V International Board of Directors and 2017 Turing Award winner, said: "The low-power RISC-V development board, which sells for less than $500, is amazing. "The PolarFire SoC built into the Microchip Icicle toolkit will accelerate the development of the RISC-V software ecosystem, which is good news for applications requiring low-power mid-range SoC FPGas."