Intel® Pathfinder for RISC-V Delivers New Capabilities for Pre-Silicon Development

SANTA CLARA, C.A. — August 30, 2022 — Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V* is launching today to transform the way SOC architects and system software developers define new products. It allows for a variety of RISC-V cores and other IP to be instantiated on FPGA and simulator platforms, with the ability to run industry leading operating systems and tool chains within a unified IDE. Intel^® Pathfinder not only saves time in assembling and testing different IP combinations in a single environment, but it also comes with robust software and industry standard toolchains that support seamless scaling for a broad spectrum of customers.

“Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V represents our ongoing commitment to accelerate the adoption of RISC-V and catalyze the ecosystem around an open-source and standards-based vision,” said Vijay Krishnan, General Manager, RISC-V Ventures from Intel.

Intel Pathfinder is initially available in two versions, the Starter Edition and the Professional Edition. The Starter Edition is intended for the hobbyist, academia and research community and is available as a free download. The Professional Edition comes with broad ecosystem support, and targets organizations involved in commercial RISC-V based silicon and software. This edition will be made available based on customer needs and underlying product capabilities.

“The Incubation & Disruptive Innovation (IDI) Group at Intel has the charter to identify and grow new business opportunities. The launch of the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V illustrates our continued commitment to bring these opportunities to life,” said Sundari Mitra, Chief Incubation Officer, Corporate Vice President, and General Manager, IDI.

Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V is made possible by contributions from key ecosystem partners:

Andes Technology Corp

“Andes is excited to be part of the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V launch,” said Frankwell Lin, Chairman and CEO of Andes Technology Corp. “Having successfully ported Andes’ highly demanded 512-bit vector processor core NX27V and 64-bit superscalar multicore AX45MP to the Intel^® Stratix^® 10 GX FPGA board, SoC designers now have the ideal platform equipped with high-performance RISC-V compute and control processors for developing and prototyping complex AI SoCs.”

Cadence

“Cadence is pleased to participate in the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V program as an ecosystem partner,” said Sanjive Agarwala, corporate vice president and general manager of the IP Group at Cadence. “The Cadence Tensilica Vision DSPs and AI Accelerator IP bring energy-efficient and high-performance embedded vision and on-device AI processing to the platform, allowing RISC-V-based SoC designers and application developers to implement optimal vision and AI solutions in record time.”

Check Point Software Technologies

“Traditionally, cybersecurity has been an afterthought in the design process of IoT devices. Yet with cyberattacks increasing in number and sophistication all the time, it has never been more important for developers to prioritize security,” said Miri Ofir, R&D Director, Check Point Software Technologies. “By enabling Check Point Quantum IoT Protect Nano Agent^® with Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V, customers will benefit from embedded state-of-the-art security at a very early stage in their product lifecycle. Quantum IOT Protect identifies and prevents sophisticated attacks in real-time, including top protection against zero-day vulnerabilities.”

Chips Alliance

“We are excited to see the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V embrace the 64-bit Rocket core from Chips Alliance, said Rob Mains, General Manager, Chips Alliance. “Our partnership with Intel is focused on accelerating the adoption of RISC-V.

Codasip

Ron Black, CEO of Codasip, commented, “RISC-V together with Codasip processor IP provides a flexible platform for innovation. We are delighted to join the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V program as one of the key ecosystem partners, enabling our customers to utilize a powerful Intel FPGA platform for their development needs.”

Codeplay Software

“Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V is great news for the technology community and demonstrates Intel’s commitment to open standards for both software and hardware,” says Andrew Richards, CEO of Codeplay Software. “Codeplay has been at the forefront of open standards-based software and this solution with Intel embraces a software-first development approach for customers to design processors to execute efficiently on real application software.”

Crypto Quantique

“We’re excited to be a strategic security offering for the launch of Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V,” said Shahram Mossayebi, CEO and Founder, Crypto Quantique. “Our focus is silicon to cloud security, and our value is in reducing supply chain security risks and complexities, while also lowering the cost of implementing secure silicon designs. Working with Intel^® Pathfinder, we see a huge potential to accelerate the democratization of security and compute.

Fraunhofer IMS

“The AIRISC family of cores from Fraunhofer IMS in Duisburg targets embedded AI applications in key segments like medical wearables, condition monitoring sensors and LIDAR image processing, says Alexander Stanitzki, Business Unit Head, Fraunhofer IMS. AIRISC provides safety support up to ASIL-D and has been integrated with popular AI frameworks. We are proud to support Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V with a FPGA- and silicon-proven design.”

Imperas Software Ltd.

“The Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V Professional Edition enables SOC architects and system software developers to explore the full potential of the new design freedoms offered by RISC-V,” said Simon Davidmann, CEO at Imperas Software Ltd. “The Imperas fixed platform kit as part of Intel^® Pathfinder includes a reference model for RISC-V configured to provide the simulation environment that supports bare metal or applications with operating systems (Linux or RTOS) as a starting point for innovation with next generation domain specific devices.”

IOTech Systems

“We’re really excited to be able to announce our support for the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V platform,” said Keith Steele, CEO, IOTech Systems. “The flexibility and choice the product brings to the RISC-V community in combination with IOTech’s edge software provides a great solution that can be used as the basis for a new generation of embedded industrial applications.”

MIPS

“MIPS is thrilled to be part of the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V program, providing high performance cores with support for multi-cluster, multi-core and multi-threading to accelerate innovation,“ said Desi Banatao, MIPS CEO. “MIPS’ eVocore line of RISC-V compatible cores employ unique features and a high level of scalability that makes them ideal for compute-intensive tasks across a broad range of applications, such as automotive, machine learning, wireless communication, and data center and storage. Like Intel, MIPS believes RISC-V will play a strong role in the future of computing.”

OpenHW Group

“The OpenHW Group is thrilled to see the launch of the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V development suite supporting the CVE4 32-bit embedded class core based OpenHW CORE-V MCU, and the CVA6 64bit application class core,” said Rick O’Connor, OpenHW Group, President & CEO. The Intel^® Pathfinder initiative is a significant industry enabler which simplifies the development of RISC-V based systems leveraging both commercial and open-source processor cores such as the OpenHW CORE-V family.”

RISC-V International

“We are excited to see the launch of Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V, which not only signifies the rapid adoption of RISC-V as an architecture, but also the valuable role that Intel is playing in making it easier for the ecosystem to benefit from the open and modular RISC-V architecture,” said Calista Redmond, CEO RISC-V International

Siemens EDA

“We are excited to offer the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V design community with proven prototyping solutions to accelerate the verification of RISC-V based SoCs,” said Jean-Marie Brunet, VP of product management and product engineering, Scalable Verification Solutions Division at Siemens EDA. “The Veloce proFPGA/10M prototyping platform is now available through the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V ecosystem.”

SiFive

“Intel and SiFive, the founder and leader in RISC-V computing, share a multi-year history of collaboration, and we are pleased that Intel selected the SiFive^® PerformanceTM P550 core both as the heart of the Horse Creek development platform and for use with Intel^® Pathfinder FPGA-based development tools,” said Phil Dworsky, SiFive Global Head of Strategic Alliances. “Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V gives software developers a head start in preparation for the highly anticipated Horse Creek boards, which are on track for delivery this year. SiFive is excited to work with Intel on this project, to engage with mutual customers, and together to fuel innovation in the fast-growing RISC-V ecosystem.”

SoC.One

“We are thrilled to join Intel in providing the RISC-V community a low-cost, low-friction open-source platform via Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V, to accelerate adoption of RISC- V technology,” said Krishna Raghavan, Founder of SoC.One. “SoC.One Cloud will enable cutting-edge cloud platform capabilities for Intel^® Pathfinder customers, further accelerating the adoption of RISC-V. We believe such platforms will play an increasingly critical role in driving future development of more innovative and efficient chips.”

STMicroelectronics

“Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V gives developers another entry to fast application development and prototyping,” said Simone Ferri, MEMS Sub-Group General Manager of marketing, STMicroelectronics Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group. “ST’s ultra-low-power LSM6DSOX inertial module with machine-learning core (MLC), finite state machine (FSM), and advanced digital functions available in Github-hosted model zoos for the MLC and FSM, offers a powerful good starting point to developers of battery-operated IoT, gaming, wearable, and personal-electronics applications.”

Terasic Inc.

Terasic is honored to join forces with the Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V platform to support the growth of the free and open RISC-V instruction set architecture. By combining Terasic’s best-in-class hardware design expertise with Intel’s compelling FPGA and software technologies, we look forward to accelerating the adoption of RISC-V, and creating a paradigm shift in the open-source ecosystem,” said Sean Peng, Founder and CEO of Terasic Inc.

Register now to start your journey with Intel^® Pathfinder for RISC-V!

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