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Course Outline
RISC-V Architecture Fundamentals and Ecosystem Overview
RISC-V ISA Landscape and Industry Adoption
- The open ISA philosophy and the RISC-V International standardization landscape.
- Mental model of RISC-V: Load-Store architecture, register file structure, and byte ordering conventions.
- Comparative analysis with ARM, x86, and POWER: Evaluating trade-offs for heterogeneous computing architectures.
- Assessment of ecosystem maturity: Contributions from SiFive, T-Head, Western Digital, and the expanding open-source silicon community.
- Standardized interfaces: RISC-V Privileged ISA and the Machine Software Abstraction Layer (MSBL).
Memory Models and ABI Compliance
- Unprivileged Architecture specification: Control and Status Registers (CSR) mapping, exception handling mechanisms, and memory hierarchies.
- RV32I/RV64I instruction sets and Application Binary Interface (ABI) compliance for cross-platform binary portability.
- Memory ordering conventions and barrier instructions designed for multiprocessor systems.
RISC-V Assembly Programming and Compiler Toolchain
Low-Level Instruction Programming
- Base integer instructions (I), Multiply/Divide (M), and Atomic operations (A) extensions.
- Bitness-aware programming strategies tailored for 32-bit and 64-bit RISC-V targets.
- Calling conventions and stack frame management essential for embedded and real-time software systems.
Compiler Toolchain Proficiency
- LLVM-based compiler toolchain: Utilizing Clang, LLVM, and Binutils for RISC-V cross-compilation.
- Linker scripts, section management, and memory layout configuration for bare-metal and RTOS environments.
- Leveraging compiler intrinsics, optimization levels, and profiling-driven code tuning.
- Open-source toolchain development workflows: Building, testing, and packaging custom GCC/Clang toolchains.
Embedded Systems Development and Real-Time Operating Systems
Bare-Metal and RTOS Programming
- Rust systems programming for RISC-V: Implementing zero-cost abstractions, unsafe memory management, and bare-metal development.
- No-Std environments: Custom linker scripts, device driver development, and memory-mapped I/O handling.
- Developing BSPs (Board Support Packages) for Zephyr RTOS and Buildroot on RISC-V targets.
- Peripheral interfacing: Programming GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, and DMA controllers.
Power and Performance Optimization
- Optimizing clock gating, power domain management, and low-power modes.
- Cycle-accurate performance analysis using simulation profilers and hardware performance counters.
- Tuning real-time interrupt latency for safety-critical applications.
Linux Kernel and Bootloader Development for RISC-V
Boot Firmware and Bootloader Ecosystem
- OpenSBI (implementation of the SBI specification): Developing bootloader firmware.
- Implementing UEFI/EDK II on RISC-V for modern firmware boot stacks.
- Porting Coreboot and U-Boot for RISC-V single-board computers.
Linux Kernel Integration
- Contributing to the RISC-V mainline kernel: Device tree overlays, CPU topology, and interrupt controller (AIA) driver development.
- Vendor BSP development and kernel configuration for custom SoC platforms.
- Enabling file system support, networking stacks, and containerization capabilities (Docker, Kubernetes) on RISC-V host systems.
RISC-V SoC Design and FPGA Prototyping
Multicore SoC Architecture and Integration
- Network-on-Chip (NoC) design methodologies for RISC-V multi-core processors.
- Axi4/CHI cache coherence protocols and inter-processor communication mechanisms.
- Integrating open-source IP sources such as OpenCores, ChIPS Framework, and vendor RTL components.
- Designing bus matrices and integrating memory controllers (DDR, SRAM, eMMC, PCIe).
FPGA-Based Processor Prototyping
- Synthesizing and implementing RISC-V cores (e.g., BOOM, VexRiscv, PULP) on FPGAs.
- Employing SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) and UVM-based functional verification methodologies.
- Utilizing formal verification tools and property-based testing for RISC-V core validation.
RISC-V Vector Extensions and Domain-Specific Acceleration
RVV (RISC-V Vector) Extension Deep Dive
- Vector load/store operations, vector-fused multiply-add (VFMA), and matrix computation acceleration.
- Variable-length vector operations (VL, VLEN) enabling workload-optimized SIMD execution.
- Vector mask operations, segment control, and data type flexibility tailored for DSP and ML workloads.
Custom DSP and Domain-Specific Instruction Design
- Designing domain-specific accelerators via custom extensions and CBAR-based operand interfaces.
- Modifying compiler frontends to generate and emit code for custom instructions.
- Strategies for hardware-software partitioning when integrating accelerators into production SoCs.
AI Acceleration and Edge Machine Learning on RISC-V
NPU Design and Integration for RISC-V Processors
- Neural Processing Unit architecture: Implementing systolic arrays, tensor cores, and weight compression for on-chip AI acceleration.
- Applying model quantization techniques (INT8, INT4, FP8) for edge deployment on RISC-V.
- Ensuring framework compatibility with TensorFlow Lite Micro, ONNX Runtime, and PyTorch Edge on RISC-V targets.
Heterogeneous Computing for AI Workloads
- Co-designing the RISC-V host CPU with an AI accelerator NPU for real-time inference pipelines.
- Optimizing the memory subsystem, including HBM/DDR bandwidth management for ML model weights and activations.
- Budgeting thermal and power constraints for edge AI inference systems.
Hardware Security and Confidential Computing on RISC-V
Physical Memory Protection and Trusted Execution
- Implementing Physical Memory Protection (PMP) and Page Table walker security mechanisms.
- Designing Secure Enclave/TEE architectures for RISC-V: Integrating OP-TEE and SEV-class trusted execution environments.
- Securing the boot chain: Establishing a root of trust, secure boot processes, and measured launch attestation.
Cryptographic Acceleration
- Utilizing RISC-V cryptographic extensions (Zk, Zkr, K) for accelerating SHA, AES, RSA, RSA-PSS, and ECC operations.
- Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) for next-generation RISC-V processors.
- Mitigating side-channel attacks through constant-time programming, masking techniques, and hardware random number generators.
Advanced Custom Architecture and ISA Extension Design
Domain-Specific Architecture and Custom Instruction Extensions
- ISA extension design methodology: Encoding, encoding tables, ABI impact analysis, and the RISC-V International specification submission process.
- Designing custom register files with CBAR (Custom Base Address Registers) for efficient operand dispatch.
- Managing instruction pipelining, hazard detection, and pipeline modifications for custom extensions.
Verification and Signoff of Custom Architecture Modifications
- Designing testbenches for custom extensions: Generating directed versus constraint-random stimuli.
- Implementing regression testing frameworks and coverage-driven verification for architectural modifications.
- Conducting interoperability testing to ensure custom instructions function correctly within established ABI constraints.
Safety-Critical and Automotive RISC-V Applications
Functional Safety and Automotive Standards Compliance
- Achieving ISO 26262 functional safety compliance for automotive processors based on RISC-V.
- Establishing ASIL-Q classification and developing safety manuals for RISC-V silicon IP.
- Implementing deterministic interrupt handling, lockstep core pairs, and memory protection for safety-critical RISC-V systems.
Industrial Real-Time and Edge Computing Applications
- Ensuring IEC 61508 SIL compliance and deterministic scheduling on RISC-V multicore platforms.
- Developing Industrial IoT gateways with RISC-V, focusing on connectivity, edge analytics, and OTA firmware update systems.
Capstone Project: End-to-End RISC-V System Development
Full Lifecycle Project
- Architecture specification: Designing ISA extensions and core configurations for defined use cases.
- RTL implementation in SystemVerilog, accompanied by UVM testbenches and formal verification coverage.
- FPGA prototyping, boot firmware development, and bare-metal driver stack integration.
- Customizing Linux BSPs and toolchains for the custom RISC-V core.
- Deploying AI workloads: Integrating NPUs, performing model quantization, and conducting performance benchmarking.
- Validating security: Enforcing PMP, implementing secure boot, and benchmarking cryptographic acceleration.
- Producing technical architecture documentation, analyzing IP strategies, and delivering cross-functional team presentations.
21 Hours
Testimonials (2)
The explanations and interactivity of the trainer, he really brought the subject well; and even-though I was probably not experienced enough, I did learn a lot from it!
Pieter Bruynseels - Spot Buy Center BV
Course - Design Patterns
I liked the platform we used. It was really nice and easy to use. I liked the typescript section, the part about namespaces and modules.
