⇡ Tutorial for the v0.5 lowRISC preview release

Release notes

Release notes

  • Rocket-core (Chisel)

    • Corrections to tag cache security and Rocket behaviour corrected.
  • Software environment

    • Choice of boot options controlled by DIP-switches from one executable.
    • Accelerated, interrupt driven access to SD-cards in Linux.
    • Interrupt driven access to 100Base-T F/D Ethernet Linux device driver.
    • Remote Booting from Ethernet or 4-bit SD-mode supported.
    • Network Filing System root supported (with static IP addresses).
    • DHCP networking and Dropbear SSH server/client remote access with local SD-card root.
    • Linux userland based on adapted version of RISCV-poky Linux.
  • lowRISC-chip

    • Accelerated, reduced overhead interrupt-driven control of SD-card.
    • Faster integration of keyboard, and scrolling of VGA display, better integration with LowRISC console.
    • Choice of booting from remote ethernet protocol, SD-card, or remote trace debugger.
    • Unattended, networked operation (with remote multi-user access) possible, subject to performance constraints.
  • Design environment

    • Updated demo images for NEXYS4-DDR FPGA.
    • Add etherboot (SD-card root or NFS-root) targets to fpga Makefile.
    • Streamlined build more easily meets design constraints.
  • Missing from this release vs the previous

    • Minion was temporarily removed because it was a performance bottleneck in the Linux device driver architecture.
    • Quad SPI memory is dedicated to bitstream configuration.

Previous releases