Microsemi and SiFive Launch HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board, Enabling Linux Software and Firmware Developers to Build RISC-V PCs for the First Time

Hong Kong, China, May 17, 2018 /Isentia Wire/ - Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, announced the launch of the HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board, its latest collaboration with SiFive, the first fabless provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors. Leveraging the two companies’ strategic relationship as part of Microsemi’s Mi-V#8482; RISC-V ecosystem, the new expansion board broadens the capabilities of SiFive’s HiFive Unleashed RISC-V development board, further enabling software and firmware engineers to write Linux-based applications targeting a 1GhZ+ RISC-V 64 bit central processing unit (CPU).

Microsemi’s HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board allows developers to implement custom peripherals in the award-winning PolarFire#174; field programmable gate array (FPGA). Plugged into HiFive Unleashed developers can implement a full-fledged RISC-V personal computer (PC) by enabling standard PCI#174; Express (PCIe) devices, USB and secure digital cards to connect to SiFive’s Freedom U540 RISC-V processor. Microsemi will showcase the platform at the RISC-V Workshop being held May 7-10 in Barcelona, Spain.

“Working together with SiFive to accelerate the growth of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) and our Mi-V ecosystem, the HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and HiFive Unleashed development board give the broader Linux market an extremely robust platform for RISC-V development,” said Ted Speers, head of Product Planning for Microsemi's Programmable business unit. “Our cost-optimized, lowest power, mid-range PolarFire FPGAs are an ideal solution for embedded development engineers to implement custom peripherals.”

The HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and HiFive Unleashed allow designers to develop complete Linux applications on a modern RISC-V CPU running at 1 GHz+. This makes the devices ideally suited for a variety of embedded applications within the communications, industrial, defense, medical and avionics markets, including control plane solutions, imaging/video processing, machine learning, control processing, time-sensitive networking, encryption and root of trust, secure wireless communications and aircraft networking.

“Microsemi has long been a strategic collaborator for SiFive, and its HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board will enable the RISC-V Community to continue to advance the cause of open source hardware,” said Yunsup Lee, co-founder and chief technology officer, SiFive. “With its HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board, Microsemi is enabling the next wave of RISC-V innovation. We look forward to our continued collaboration, and can’t wait to see what products come to market based on our technologies.”

The HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board offers numerous additional features, including a PCIe root complex, serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) port, M.2 SSD port, two USB ports, HDMI, double data rate fourth-generation (DDR4) memory expansion, an embedded multi-media controller (eMMC) managed NAND Flash and secure digital card slot.

“The RISC-V Foundation applauds the work Microsemi and SiFive have done in collaboration to deliver a comprehensive Linux software development platform for RISC-V,” said Rick O’Connor, executive director of the non-profit RISC-V Foundation. “Numerous commercial and open source developers are adopting RISC-V for Linux-based designs. Particularly in the embedded market, where a growing majority of today’s designs run Linux, this Microsemi/SiFive RISC-V solution offers a compelling development environment.”

RISC-V is a free and open ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. As the ISA is frozen, software which is written will always run on the RISC-V core, and since the RISC-V IP core is not encrypted, it can be used to ensure trust and certifications not possible with closed architectures. To learn more about RISC-V visit: www.risc-v.org.

About Microsemi’s Mi-V Ecosystem

Microsemi’s Mi-V ecosystem, part of Microsemi’s Accelerate Ecosystem—a program designed to reduce time to market for end customers and time to revenue for ecosystem participants—brings together a number of industry leaders involved in the development of RISC-V to leverage their capabilities and streamline RISC-V designs for customers. Enabling third parties to access a growing platform for further RISC-V adoption and innovation, the Mi-V ecosystem provides firmware and hardware engineers a comprehensive ecosystem from a tier-one vendor.

Product Availability

The HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board and HiFive Unleashed development board are available for purchase from Crowd Supply. For more information, visit https://www.crowdsupply.com/microsemi/hifive-unleashed-expansion-board.

About PolarFire FPGAs

Microsemi's new cost-optimized PolarFire FPGAs deliver the industry's lowest power at mid-range densities with exceptional security and reliability. The product family features 12.7 Gbps transceivers and offer up to 50 percent lower power than competing FPGAs. Densities span from 100K to 500K logic elements (LEs) and are ideal for a wide range of applications within wireline access networks and cellular infrastructure, defense and commercial aviation markets, as well as industry 4.0 which includes the industrial automation and internet of things (IoT) markets.

PolarFire FPGAs' transceivers can support multiple serial protocols, making the products ideal for communications applications with 10Gbps Ethernet, CPRI, JESD204B, Interlaken and PCIe. In addition, the ability to implement serial gigabit Ethernet (SGMII) on GPIO enables numerous 1Gbps Ethernet links to be supported. PolarFire FPGAs also contain the most hardened security intellectual property (IP) to protect customer designs, data and supply chain. The non-volatile PolarFire product family consumes 10 times less static power than competitive devices and features an even lower standby power referred to as Flash*Freeze. For more information, visit www.microsemi.com/polarfire.

About Microsemi

Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for aerospace defense, communications, data center and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world’s standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; enterprise storage and communication solutions, security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Ethernet solutions; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and has approximately 4,800 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com.