ALISO VIEJO, Calif.,
May 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading
provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power,
security, reliability and performance, today 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™ 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®
field programmable gate array (FPGA). Plugged into HiFive Unleashed
developers can implement a full-fledged RISC-V personal computer
(PC) by enabling standard PCI® 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.
Microsemi and the Microsemi logo are registered trademarks or
service marks of Microsemi Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Third-party trademarks and service marks mentioned herein are the
property of their respective owners.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release
that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including
statements related to the launch of the HiFive Unleashed Expansion
Board, its latest collaboration with SiFive, the first fabless
provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors, and its
potential effects on future business, are forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our
current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The
potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to,
such factors as rapidly changing technology and product
obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer
order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of
the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the
company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end
markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing
and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand,
potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of
backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential
unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in
current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs of
protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory
obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of
products. In addition to these factors and any other factors
mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer
as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the
company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q
reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors
may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings.
The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only
as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any
obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect
subsequent events or circumstances.
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