Renode 1.6 released making Linux-enabled RISC-V Microchip PolarFire SoC available to everyone

December 4th 2018, Santa Clara, CA - Today, Antmicro, a high-tech company focusing on introducing open technologies to modern edge computing systems and RISC-V ecosystem leader, has announced adding support for the groundbreaking Linux-enabled PolarFire SoC revealed earlier by Microchip Technology in the revolutionary open source Renode software development framework. The announcement comes during the inaugural RISC-V Summit currently taking place in Santa Clara, California.

Enabling the Freedom to Innovate with Hardware/​Software Co-Design

Microchip PolarFire SoC is a new class of SoC FPGAs that combines the industry’s lowest power mid-range PolarFire FPGA family with a complete microprocessor subsystem based on the open, royalty-free RISC-V ISA.

In a move that is the result of the ongoing strategic cooperation between Antmicro and Microsemi (a subsidiary of Microchip) around the latter’s Mi-V ecosystem, the new PolarFire SoC architecture is made available for developers worldwide in Renode today to accelerate the practical adoption of Linux-enabled platforms that are deemed crucial for the industry’s migration to RISC-V.

By adding support for Microsemi’s PF SoC, Antmicro’s open source Renode enables pre-silicon software development with RISC-V for everyone, while Microchip and their customers gather feedback on real needs and see real first applications before chips are taped out. The approach introduces a unique perspective of driving hardware development with software, promoting scalability and collaborative design - the cornerstones of the RISC-V movement which both Microchip and Antmicro, as Platinum Founding Members of the RISC-V Foundation, are spearheading.

Renode with PolarFire SoC support now comes bundled with Microsemi’s standard SoftConsole IDE, so that current and prospective customers can build on the platform without additional software downloads, and set up a continuous integration workflow for their new projects using Renode’s extensive testing features and infrastructure.

Renode 1.6 available now on GitHub

Renode’s latest release 1.6 is now available on GitHub. The current release, apart from adding support for the Microsemi PolarFire SoC processor subsystem (with I/O blocks like PCIe, USB, QSPI flash, CAN, I2C, SPI and more), includes substantial upgrades to better accommodate RISC-V systems: atomic instructions for RISC-V, new USB and PCI infrastructure, block-finished event infrastructure (verified on both RISC-V and ARM cores), as well as support for the PicoSoC RISC-V softCPU.

To learn more about the capabilities of Antmicro’s open source Renode pre-silicon and post-silicon software development framework, visit renode.io or write to contact@renode.io.