Microchip introduces low-cost PolarFire SoC Discovery toolkit

     There is a growing demand for RISC-V-based open source processor architectures in the embedded industry, but options for commercial chips or hardware remain limited. To fill this gap and drive innovation, Microchip Technology announced the PolarFire SoC Discovery Toolkit. By providing user-friendly, feature-rich development kits for embedded processing and compute acceleration, Microchip helps engineers of all levels adopt emerging technologies. The newly released open source development kit features a quad-core RISC-V application-grade processor for Linux and real-time applications, a wealth of peripherals, and 95K low-power high-performance FPGA logic elements. The new toolkit is full of features and low cost to quickly test application concepts, develop firmware applications, program and debug user code.

     Shakeel Peera, Microchip's vice president of marketing in charge of the FPGA business unit, said: "We are committed to helping support the development of embedded systems that require low-power, high-performance FPGA architectures. The PolarFire SoC Discovery Toolkit is a key step in creating easy-to-use, intelligent, secure and high-performance computing solutions for a wide range of applications. With the new Discovery toolkit, experienced design engineers, newbies, and college students can learn and innovate quickly using the low-cost RISC-V and FPGA development platform."

     In addition to traditional sales channels, the PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit will be available as part of Microchip's Academic Program through a pilot program in the second half of 2024. By offering Discovery kits to universities at a discounted price, Microchip hopes to ensure that future generations of engineers have direct access to the most advanced technology. This practice not only enhances the hands-on learning experience for students, but also aligns academic research with the latest industry trends. Microchip's University program is designed to provide resources for educators, researchers and students worldwide to help universities incorporate advanced technology into their curricula.

     Steven Osburn, professor at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University, said: "Graduation projects are A rare opportunity for students to develop practical applications while preparing students for the workplace. Several ASU students used the PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit for their projects this year, and it was a valuable experience for them to not only use the development board, but also get excellent guidance through the Microchip University program. Students will gain hands-on experience using new technologies to complete real engineering projects and find innovative solutions to real problems."

     Built around the PolarFire MPFS095T SoC FPGA, the Discovery toolkit features an embedded microprocessor subsystem consisting of a quad-core 64-bit CPU cluster based on the RISC-V Instruction set Architecture (ISA). The large L2 memory subsystem can be configured for high performance or deterministic operation and supports asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) mode. The board supports Microchip's Mi-V ecosystem, MikroBUS extension headers for Click Boards, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi connector, and MIPI video connectors. The expansion board can be controlled using protocols such as I2C and SPI. It also includes an embedded FP5 programmer for FPGA structure programming and debugging and firmware application development.