SEPTEMBER NEWS RISC-V SoC DEVELOPMENT BOARD RISC-V SoC TARGETS EDGE-AI COMPUTING ALIBABA CLOUD has unveiled a new chip development platform, the Wujian 600, which has been created to help developers in the design of Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) for edge-AI computing leveraging the RISC-V instruction-set architecture. Developed by Alibaba Group’s chip development business, T-Head, the Wujian 600 has been tailored specifically for developing edge SoCs. With enhanced CPU capability and heterogeneous architecture for high-performance embedded and edge products, the platform supports the design of SoCs in embedded applications, including home robots, medical imaging and video conferencing. It also includes an optimised software stack to help speed up the rollout of ALIBABA CLOUD UNVEILS RISC-V SoC DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM products to the market. Available for licensing, the platform aims to aid developers by reducing the development costs and shortening the design cycle of chips, making the mass production of RISC-V based high-performance SoCs a reality. “We hope to share our development capability of RISC-V based high-performance chips with the launch of Wujian 600,” said Jianyi Meng, Vice President of T-Head. “Customers can leverage the platform to develop their high-performance SoCs in a fast and efficient way. By making the platform accessible to global developers, we hope to contribute to the RISC-V Proving the reliability of the platform, the TH1520 has already been used inside Alibaba’s ecosystem. The device uses Imagination’s BXM-4-64 GPU IP, a core from its high-efficiency performance GPU family, which offers up to a 25% lower area and up to 30% lower power than previous IMG designs and features Imagination’s IMGIC compression technology – making it suitable for complex UI solutions such as DTV, with twice the render resolution of other designs. Also included in the SoC is the PowerVR AX3386 AI accelerator, part of the Series3NX NNA cores. “The Wujian 600 development platform enables powerful edge SoCs with enhanced frequency and increased storage for robust edge-AI computing. The developer ecosystem supporting Xuantie on Linux and Android further strengthens the RISC-V software ecosystem,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “This is a great example of collaboration across the RISC-V community.” With the Wujian 600 platform, developers can now run desktop-level applications, such as the FireFox browser and LibreOffice built on OpenAnolis, an open-source Linux-based operating system launched by Alibaba in 2020. This marks a milestone for RISC-V based SoCs being used in high computing-demand scenarios, such as edge computing. Collaboration with T-head’s ecosystem partners, such as OpenAnolis, will also lead to further optimisation of the software stacks on the Wujian 600. community, enabling more customised RISC-V based SoCs tailored for different applications.” The Wujian 600 platform was used in the development and prototyping of the TH1520, a high-performance SoC by T-head, which brings CPU and AI computing to the edge with a quad-core Xuantie C910 CPU up to 2.5GHz, 4 TOPs of NPU, 64-bit 4266MT on DDR, and a wide range of standard I/O interfaces. It has also adopted the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) security certification scheme that meets the GlobalPlatform standard. STARFIVE SELECTS IMAGINATION’S BXE GPU IP IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES has announced that its IMG BXE GPU IP has been integrated into StarFive’s latest RISC-V single-board computer (SBC), the VisionFive 2. The GPU offers a number of advantages in terms of power, performance, and area (PPA) and is intended for cloud, industrial, networking, consumer and automotive applications. Commenting Thomas Xu, CEO, StarFive said, “Balancing performance and efficiency is a difficult task when designing single-board computers, especially when RISC-V compatibility is added General Manager, China, Imagination. “Together we recognise this architecture’s importance, and we share a common goal of driving ecosystem growth. We are pleased to see StarFive leveraging our GPU’s compatibility with RISC-V to unlock a wide range of SBC implementations across major markets, accelerating innovation and supporting open-source development.” The IMG BXE GPU offers up to a 25% area reduction and 35% bandwidth reduction over Imagination’s previous generation of GPUs, and up to 2.5x higher fill-rate than competing IP cores. The GPU scales from 1 to 16 pixels per clock (PPC), with optimised cores which can easily deliver complex 1080p and 4K UIs for DTV, IoT and smart home devices. The highest specification BXE offers never-before-seen performance for pixel-focused applications, enabling customers to target 8K displays with optimal silicon area. The VisionFive 2 is the world’s first RISC-V SBC with an integrated GPU and boasts a StarFive JH7110 SoC, running up to 1.5 GHz and featuring a quad-core RISC-V CPU as well as a high-performance GPU. IMAGINATION GPU SELECTED FOR VISIONFIVE 2 SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTER to the mix. By choosing Imagination’s GPU IP we’ve managed to successfully navigate these challenges. The IMG BXE GPU integrates seamlessly with StarFive’s RISC-V JH7110 SoC, significantly enhancing the SBC’s graphics performance. Imagination is a strong partner in our journey to build out the RISC-V ecosystem.” “As RISC-V development accelerates, we are pleased to continue our collaboration with StarFive,” said James Liu, Vice President and 14 / SEPTEMBER 2022
New Electronics September 2022: Page 14
