Microchip has released a RISC-V FPGA board. It is based on Microchip’s 5-core, 667 MHz MPFS095T-1FCSG325E FPGA with 95K logic elements and 4 64-bit RISC-V cores, a 1 gigabyte main memory and a micro SD card slot. Linux can be installed on the board via the SD card slot. The PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit also has Gigabit Ethernet.
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The ports are supplemented by three UART ports via USB type C, a MIPI port (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) and a MicroBUS connector, which can be used to connect boards from the MikroE-Click ecosystem. There is also a 7-segment display connector and a 40-pin connector called the “Raspberry Pi Connector”. The extent to which the PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit is compatible with Raspberry Pi hardware is not specified.
The board is intended for beginners in FPGA and RISC-V developments. That’s why there is one as support Collection of webinars available, which explain the handling and development of the single-board computer. These watch-on-demand webinars are held by various industry partners, always with reference to the PolarFire SoC.
A FlashPro 5 is installed directly on the board for programming. To get started, the PolarFire SoC just needs to be connected with a USB to J4 cable. Then you can record with FlashPro Express.
The board is 10.4 cm x 8.3 cm in size and in Microchip store for 123 euros available.
This page also contains links to design files and the official GitHub page. That’s already there Reference design kit deposited.
If FPGAs are still too powerful for you, you will definitely find a way to start a project in our MicroPython board overview.
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