New High Performance (Risc-V) Processors Available to DIYers
A new processor that has been in the works for a few years is the open source Risk-V architecture, developed at Berkeley.
Enthusiastic participation by the industry has fostered the development of various chip designs and open source software, Chinese companies in particular love the idea of not having to pay a license fee on each chip they manufacture, the one big loser is the maker of Arm processors, used in almost every cell phone and 32 bit hobby computer. Western Digital, a big Arm user has been a strong sponsor of Risk-V and has committed to making a Billion Risk-V processors.
I don't have much info on the technical advantage of this design, they do have a small instruction set, which simplifies optimizing hardware, this new entry should cause an overall drop in processor prices.
A simplified evolutionary timeline:
3/8/14 EE Times Article By Berkeley Designers,
RISC-V: An Open Standard for SoCs - The case for an open ISA
Founded in 2015, the RISC-V Foundation (currently) comprises more than 235 members building the first open, collaborative community of software and hardware innovators powering innovation at the edge forward.
Early design verification and software development was done on Soft Silicon, chip logic emulated in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
SiFive, a System on Chip design to order service, founded by RISC-V inventors and IC production experts, was an early producer of Risk-V chips. (Their News link provides a good timeline )
Late 2016 SiFive Introduced the HiFive1, an Arduino Uno style eval board (currently $59)
I believe the SOC includes an ESP32 do handle communication and housekeeping, as one author put it "this was a joining of 2 processor Cinderella stories" This board is reported to be faster than the top of the line Teensy, the previous performance champ.
HackaDay Review
In late 2017 Arduino was briefly excited enough about the Risk-V to announce the Arduino Cinque, a recreation of the HiFive1, reportedly a change in Arduino management and board production partners, may be behind the demise of this board before it hit the market.
Of geographical interest: Microsemi, in Aliso Viejo, (acquired by Microchip in early 2018) introduced the PolarFire FPGAs, an SOC that includes Risk-V processors running Linux and an FPGA, this company which also produces Space-grade FPGAs offers a Development Kit for Video processing for $999 as well as others.
(PolarFire SoC competes most directly with Xilinx’s hybrid Arm/FPGA Zynq SoCs, used in the PYNQ™board mentioned on another page.)
Here is a less expensive board using the PolarFile (I believe)
Future Microsemi PolarFire MPF300 Avalanche Eval Board 2.0 - NA Power Supply $179.95
The Sipeed MAIX-I module (with WiFi) $8.90
This 1"square power packed module is a huge bargain at $7.90/$8.90 (WiFi is a $1 option)
It includes a dual core Risk-V processor with 8Mb SRAM, hardware FFT for processing up to 8 audio channels, and the KPU (Neural Network Processor) with impressive specs that translate to being able to recognize objects @ 30 FPS with VGA camera res. It support tiny-yolo, mobilenet-v1, and, TensorFlow Lite.
While still near the bleeding edge, and just past the crowdfunding early production phase. These parts have just become available at SeedStudio (China) this week (Mar 2019).
Early Sales Video:
Simplified Face Identification Demo:
The Sispeed site is the sole documentation and source code source at this time (they mention you may need to Google translate the Chinese docs for the newest info) it's worth a visit to see their web of things effect on the home page.
Here's the maker of the Kendryte SOC used in these products.
A review @ 7:45 in this video
(this MickMake guy seems to receive products for review daily, might be worth following)
The quickest way to see the 12 Sipeed products at SeedStudio is this search link.
(Some are listed under Machine Vision, some under Python)
While the tine 1" x 1" module has outer edge solder points (72 pins), making it easier to hand solder than some surface mount, most of us will want a prototype board.
The easiest to use complete package is the Sipeed MAix BiT Kit for RISC-V AI+IoT $20.90
Accessories (which may not have off the shelf demo software, look for future docs here)
Sipeed 6+1 Microphone Array for Dock/Go/Bit 7 Mics and 12 RGB LEDs $11.90
For beamforming, etc. facilitated by APU (Audio Processor) and FFT in SOC package.
The Kendryte AI SOC image processor package is used in these products...
The Chinese translation of Kendryte is surveying intelligence.
This may be a sensitive subject for some. The Chinese government has been installing an AI facial recognition monitoring system to track the population, giving them a letter grade for good citizenship. It is said to be in full operation in 2020. Demonstrations show relatively tame applications like shaming jay walkers with their photo displayed on the corner, you can bet there are greater ambitions to automatically generate relationship maps, that allow backtracking all contacts with suspected dissidents, there's little chance of there ever being another Tiananmen Square style protests their futures.
A spooky video:
The confusing Chinese maker Naomi Wu (Sexy Cyborg) created a project called:
Face Changer- Biometric Countermeasures Based on Traditional Chinese Opera
It used a mini projector mounted on the brim of a giant hat.
(I leave it to you to discover what she does with trans illumination fiber optics)
Enthusiastic participation by the industry has fostered the development of various chip designs and open source software, Chinese companies in particular love the idea of not having to pay a license fee on each chip they manufacture, the one big loser is the maker of Arm processors, used in almost every cell phone and 32 bit hobby computer. Western Digital, a big Arm user has been a strong sponsor of Risk-V and has committed to making a Billion Risk-V processors.
I don't have much info on the technical advantage of this design, they do have a small instruction set, which simplifies optimizing hardware, this new entry should cause an overall drop in processor prices.
A simplified evolutionary timeline:
3/8/14 EE Times Article By Berkeley Designers,
RISC-V: An Open Standard for SoCs - The case for an open ISA
Founded in 2015, the RISC-V Foundation (currently) comprises more than 235 members building the first open, collaborative community of software and hardware innovators powering innovation at the edge forward.
Early design verification and software development was done on Soft Silicon, chip logic emulated in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
SiFive, a System on Chip design to order service, founded by RISC-V inventors and IC production experts, was an early producer of Risk-V chips. (Their News link provides a good timeline )
Late 2016 SiFive Introduced the HiFive1, an Arduino Uno style eval board (currently $59)
I believe the SOC includes an ESP32 do handle communication and housekeeping, as one author put it "this was a joining of 2 processor Cinderella stories" This board is reported to be faster than the top of the line Teensy, the previous performance champ.
HackaDay Review
In late 2017 Arduino was briefly excited enough about the Risk-V to announce the Arduino Cinque, a recreation of the HiFive1, reportedly a change in Arduino management and board production partners, may be behind the demise of this board before it hit the market.
Of geographical interest: Microsemi, in Aliso Viejo, (acquired by Microchip in early 2018) introduced the PolarFire FPGAs, an SOC that includes Risk-V processors running Linux and an FPGA, this company which also produces Space-grade FPGAs offers a Development Kit for Video processing for $999 as well as others.
(PolarFire SoC competes most directly with Xilinx’s hybrid Arm/FPGA Zynq SoCs, used in the PYNQ™board mentioned on another page.)
Future Microsemi PolarFire MPF300 Avalanche Eval Board 2.0 - NA Power Supply $179.95
*** And For The DIY Crowd ***
The Sipeed MAIX-I module (with WiFi) $8.90
This 1"square power packed module is a huge bargain at $7.90/$8.90 (WiFi is a $1 option)
It includes a dual core Risk-V processor with 8Mb SRAM, hardware FFT for processing up to 8 audio channels, and the KPU (Neural Network Processor) with impressive specs that translate to being able to recognize objects @ 30 FPS with VGA camera res. It support tiny-yolo, mobilenet-v1, and, TensorFlow Lite.
There is a Raspberry Pi Hat providing Grove connectors and this powerful package is in the works
While still near the bleeding edge, and just past the crowdfunding early production phase. These parts have just become available at SeedStudio (China) this week (Mar 2019).
Early Sales Video:
Simplified Face Identification Demo:
The Sispeed site is the sole documentation and source code source at this time (they mention you may need to Google translate the Chinese docs for the newest info) it's worth a visit to see their web of things effect on the home page.
Here's the maker of the Kendryte SOC used in these products.
A review @ 7:45 in this video
(this MickMake guy seems to receive products for review daily, might be worth following)
The quickest way to see the 12 Sipeed products at SeedStudio is this search link.
(Some are listed under Machine Vision, some under Python)
While the tine 1" x 1" module has outer edge solder points (72 pins), making it easier to hand solder than some surface mount, most of us will want a prototype board.
The easiest to use complete package is the Sipeed MAix BiT Kit for RISC-V AI+IoT $20.90
This is a $12.90 board bundled with a Camera and LCD
Accessories (which may not have off the shelf demo software, look for future docs here)
Sipeed 6+1 Microphone Array for Dock/Go/Bit 7 Mics and 12 RGB LEDs $11.90
For beamforming, etc. facilitated by APU (Audio Processor) and FFT in SOC package.
For the stereo vision, AR enthusiast (Mics shown are optional $2.90 ea.)
(Probably no off the shelf software currently available, here's where it should be)
The Super Deluxe Model
This package has added microphone, speaker, Accelerometer and a bigger LCD (with touch screen shown working in demos)
NEWS FLASH 5/8/19
Can't wait weeks to get one from China?, I just noticed Arrow.com has a few Go boards for sale with free overnight shipping. ($5.54 more than the price at Seeedstudio, probably less than Seeed's cost + shipping )
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/110991191/seeed-technology-limited
Two new Kendryte boards are coming up:
Grove AI HAT from Seedstudio.com
We will have to see how the processor works out with the Raspberry Pi $24.50 out Jun 15, 2019
The 6- 4 pin Grove connectors are convenient to use, Seed has many compatible modules.
Includes an Accelerator and Mic, with Camera and LCD connectors like the Sipeed products, but the Cam and LCD are not included.
Sipeed Maixduino
This board has a strong resemblance to the HiFive eval board and the aborted Arduino Cinque sharing much the same design. It includes an ESP32 to handle housekeeping like the similar boards used. In an Arduino Uno package style, it is a bit short on pins, but it should be interesting to see how the 2 processors power is combined. No price or delivery date...
Release date unknown Sipeed did offer sample boards to "significant developers "last month.
There is an Arduino IDE add-on for the Risc-V Kendryte processor on the Sipeed boards:
Maixduino on Sipeed MAIX Risc-V Boards Arduino IDE on Windows
--------------------------------------------------------------
An odd side-note:
The Kendryte AI SOC image processor package is used in these products...
The Chinese translation of Kendryte is surveying intelligence.
This may be a sensitive subject for some. The Chinese government has been installing an AI facial recognition monitoring system to track the population, giving them a letter grade for good citizenship. It is said to be in full operation in 2020. Demonstrations show relatively tame applications like shaming jay walkers with their photo displayed on the corner, you can bet there are greater ambitions to automatically generate relationship maps, that allow backtracking all contacts with suspected dissidents, there's little chance of there ever being another Tiananmen Square style protests their futures.
A spooky video:
The confusing Chinese maker Naomi Wu (Sexy Cyborg) created a project called:
Face Changer- Biometric Countermeasures Based on Traditional Chinese Opera
It used a mini projector mounted on the brim of a giant hat.
(I leave it to you to discover what she does with trans illumination fiber optics)
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