Intel has updated the famous Nios soft processor lineup The latest Nios V softcore movies, Designed around the open source RISC-V instruction set architecture.
The Nios series processor is an implementation of Intel’s simple low-power processor, which is designed to be suitable for field programmable gate array (FPGA) design, and only occupies a small part of it, providing basic CPU functions.according to Gartner, Nios CPU series is the most widely used soft core technology in FPGA industry. These soft cores allow the FPGA design to have the basic functions of the CPU required by the design. In this way, the company provides hardware designers with basic CPU requirements through Intel FPGAs, enabling faster hardware development.
The industry is becoming more and more interested in the open RISC-V ISA. According to recent reports, Intel has also expressed interest in the open RISC-V ISA. Acquired SiFive, a RISC-V startup company, for US$2 billion. Considering the wide range of applications that RISC-V can meet, this makes sense, as we saw on the Nios V soft core.
The importance of using RISC-V as an ISA template for these types of kernels lies in the open source hardware project, which aims to open up the entire ecosystem so that it can be used by anyone.
this Nios IIThe predecessor of Nios V is Intel’s 32-bit digital signal processing (DSP) and system control based on the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) design principle. The Nios II iteration is a 32-bit RISC CPU with 32 general-purpose 32-bit registers, a complete 32-bit instruction set, data path, address space, and single instruction 32 × 32 multiplication and division to produce a 32-bit result. Although we don’t know the details of Nios V, we think it is very similar.
Currently, Nios V is a microcontroller in the form of V/m. This design uses the RV32IA part of the RISC-V specification as well as atomic expansion, 5-stage pipeline and AXI4 interface to create a powerful microcontroller design. However, Intel plans to continue to design the Nios V design IP and develop a V/g general-purpose Nios V form processor that supports Linux, capable of running the Linux kernel.
The introduction of Nios V means that Intel has finally joined the RISC-V open source trend. The company has already provided some of the first designs based on the open ISA. In the future, we can see more powerful designs appearing in the Intel Design Center.
