First SoC FPGA development kit based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture

Microchip Technology is offering what is claimed to be the industry’s first RISC-V based SoC FPGA development kit for PolarFire SoC FPGA—the industry-leading low-cost, low-power, RISC-V-based SoC FPGA. The company's Icicle Development Kit for PolarFire (SoC) FPGAs brings together multiple Mi-V partners to speed customer design deployment and commercial adoption over an assortment of industries.

Designers who wish to deploy a programmable RISC-V-based SOC FPGA are now capable of starting development and evaluate the wide network of RISC-V ecosystem products such as RTOS, debuggers, compilers, SOMs and security solutions. The Mi-V RISC-V Partner Ecosystem is a constantly expanding, exhaustive suite of tools and design resources developed by the company and multiple third parties to fully support RISC-V designs.

“Microchip is enabling an unprecedented transformation in processor design as the market embraces RISC-V software and silicon,” said Bruce Weyer, vice president of the Field-Programmable Gate Array business unit at Microchip. “We are removing barriers to entry through a low-cost evaluation platform that will give embedded engineers, software designers and hardware developers a vehicle to implement designs that leverage the benefits of the open RISC-V ISA combined with Microchip’s best-in-class form factors, thermals and low-power characteristics of PolarFire SoC FPGAs.”

“It's exciting to see a low-power RISC-V board for under $500,” said David Patterson, vice-chair of the RISC-V International board of directors and 2017 Turing Award winner. “Microchip’s Icicle Kit, with an embedded PolarFire SoC, will accelerate advances in the RISC-V software ecosystem and be a boon to applications that need a low-power mid-range SoC FPGA.”