RISC-V Picking Up Steam

NXP has one:

Some people make their information hard to find. I can't find a data sheet on either the CPUs or the board. Am I just missing this? open-isa doesn't actually talk about chips or boards, they talk about "platforms" which can mean IP to make chips from.

I think everything you're looking for is here:

Thanks. This chip is much more complex than I would have expected. If I'm reading the docs right, there are four CPUs? Or maybe there are two versions of the chip, one with two ARM CPUs and one with two RISC-V CPUs?

Either way, this will take a lot of work to get familiar with.

Yup! Too bad I don't have time right now...

as far as I can tell they just hedge their bets by putting both arm and risc-v on the chip, but you can't use both you have to chose which to use

The chip is designed purely for the purposes of comparison and evaluation. It will let people get an idea of whether RISC-V or ARM will be the best choice (or if they are equally usable) in a microcontroller context.

I suppose NXP is hedging their bets in that they will make whatever chips people want to buy.

f I'm reading the docs right, there are four CPUs? Or maybe there are two versions of the chip, one with two ARM CPUs and one with two RISC-V CPUs?

and if people don't want RISC-V the chip isn't a total waste (assuming it doesn't take that up much die area)

The chip will never be sold to people who want an ARM core. It will never be sold in quantity to anyone, other than people making evaluation or demo cards. It is targeted at people who don't know if they are best served by a RISC-V core or an ARM core, so that they can make a comparison with a single device that lets them swap between cores, and provides identical peripherals for each core. They can write a single application, and with no more than a little conditional compilation compile that application for either ARM or RISC-V. They can run it on the two cores, and measure speed, power, and any other factors that interest them. They can swap back and forth, testing on each core.

Then they will go back to NXP and say "That RISC-V core is great. It let me get the same results for half the battery usage" or "That RISC-V core is okay, but not significantly different from ARM for my applications - I'll stick to what I know unless the price is good enough", or "The RISC-V core was rubbish - I prefer ARM".

Ok, but just to be clear, I thought I saw a total of four processors. Do you only get a choice to run one of the four then? That makes sense to put two comparisons on the same 'test" die, a lower end comparison and a higher level comparison.

As far as I understand it, you can have a low-end and a high-end core at the same time. I don't know if you can mix and match with one ARM and the other RISC-V, or if both have to be from the same vendor.