Microchip's new PolarFire SoC architecture, announced at the RISC-V Summit in Santa Clara, California, brings real-time deterministic asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) capabilities to Linux platforms in a coherent, multi-core CPU cluster. Developed in collaboration with SiFive, the PolarFire SoC architecture incorporates a 2MB flexible L2 memory subsystem that can be configured as cache, auxiliary memory, or direct access memory. This enables designers to deploy real-time deterministic embedded applications with a powerful operating system for a variety of space- and thermally constrained applications in collaborative and networked IoT systems.
In a computing era marked by the convergence of 5G, machine learning, and IoT, embedded system developers need the power of Linux-based operating systems. These must meet deterministic system requirements in low-power, thermally constrained design environments, while also fulfilling critical security and reliability requirements. Traditional FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) in System-on-Chip (SoCs) combine reconfigurable hardware and Linux-compatible processing on a single chip, providing developers with ideal devices due to their customization capabilities. However, these devices are often very powerful, lack proven levels of security and reliability, or use inflexible and expensive process architectures.
The PolarFire SoC incorporates numerous debugging capabilities, such as instruction scanning, 50 interrupt points, configurable passive runtime supervisors for AXI (Advanced eXtensible Interface) bus and FPGA fabric supervisors, in addition to Microchip's SmartDebug two-channel logic analyzer.
The PolarFire SoC architecture offers reliability and security features such as single error correction and double error detection (SEC-DED) across all memories, physical memory protection, a core with DPA (Differential Power Analysis) cryptographic security, military-grade secure boot, and 128Kb of Flash boot memory.
Evaluation and design with the PolarFire SoC are supported by Antmicro's Renode™ system modeling platform, now integrated into Microchip's SoftConsole Integrated Design Environment (IDE) for embedded designs targeting PolarFire SoCs. A development kit for the PolarFire SoC is now available, consisting of the HiFive Unleashed PolarFire FPGA Expansion Board and the SiFive HiFive Unleashed Development Board with its RISC-V microprocessor subsystem.
Microchip also today announced its Mi-V Embedded Experts Program, a global network of partners that assists customers with their hardware/software designs for PolarFire SoCs. This program ensures support throughout the customer's product lifecycle and helps accelerate designs in their early stages and shorten time to market. Members also have access to direct technical assistance and priority access to development platforms and devices.
