Getting Started with RISC-V

1h 32mIntermediate2024-01-30

Authors

Eduardo Corpeño

Electrical Engineer, Computer Programmer, and Teacher for 15+ years

Course details

RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that allows for a new era of processor innovation through collaboration and shared technical investment. Combining a fast foundation architecture with a modular approach to design, chipmakers, hobbyists, and users alike find it easy to work with this incredibly flexible yet manageable system.

This course provides an overview of the core concepts, community, ecosystem, philosophy, and architectural principles to help you get started with RISC-V. Join instructor Eduardo Corpeño as he offers insights on using multiplication and division, floating-point operations, and other ISA extensions. Be sure to check out the demos and simulation examples at the end of the course to get a better understanding of how RISC-V can be used in real-world applications.

Skills covered

Raspberry PiInternet of ThingsHardwareProgramming FoundationsLearningSoftware Development

Concepts

Introduction

Get started with RISC-V
What you should know

About RISC-V

What is RISC-V
Reception and growth of RISC-V
Applications of RISC-V
The future of RISC-V

The RISC-V Community

RISC-V International
The RISC-V ecosystem
Ways to contribute to RISC-V
Available resources

The RISC Architecture Philosophy

CISC vs. RISC
Memory access
Instruction encoding
Microcode
CISC and RISC today

The RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture

Modularity of the RISC-V ISA
RISC-V naming convention
The RV32I base integer ISA
CPU registers
RV32I instruction set

RISC-V ISA Extensions

Multiplication and division
Floating-point operations
Compressed ISA extension
Other ISA extensions

RISC-V Simulation Examples

RISC-V assembly language
RISC-V development tools
The Venus simulator
A simple coding demo
Step simulation demo
LED matrix application
A simple embedded application

Conclusion

Next steps