Western Digital To Open-Source The "SweRV" RISC-V Core In 2019

[johanb]

Michael You missed to reference the actual benchmark numbers in WesternDigitals blog!

> The Western Digital SweRV Core™ EHX1 is a 32-bit, 2-way superscalar, 9 stage pipeline core. With an expected simulation performance of up to 4.9 CoreMarks/Mhz

After googling some I found that previous RISC-V chips have:
- Berkeley BOOM prototype (2015): 3.91 CoreMarks/MHz
- Freedom U500 (unreleased): 2.75 CoreMark/MHz?
- Freedom F31 (late 2017): 3.1 CoreMark/Mhz

So 4.9 CoreMarks/Mhz is an incredible improvement over the Rocket/Boom designs it seems!

Since it will be up to 1.8Ghz and built on a 28nm process node (same as BOOM) this will easily take the throne as the fastest RISC-V chip ever made. (As far as I know , BOOM was previously the most powerful RISC-V chip ever made, correct me if I'm wrong).

[pkese]

Michael You missed to reference the actual benchmark numbers in WesternDigitals blog!
> The Western Digital SweRV Core™ EHX1 is a 32-bit, 2-way superscalar, 9 stage pipeline core. With an expected simulation performance of up to 4.9 CoreMarks/Mhz

4.9 CoreMarks/MHZ is an insanely high number for an in-order design.
For reference: an in-order ARM A53 performs at 2.6 CoreMarks/MHz, while an out-of-order ARM A57 gets 4.03 CoreMarks/MHz.

It is often that HW manufacturers will multiply their CoreMarks by number of cores. Does anyone know how many cores are there in that chip design?
If it is a 2-core design, at 2.45 CoreMarks/MHz, that is still a respectable number - with a little bit higher frequency, it is core-for-core comparable to Raspberry PI (although half as many cores).

[ldesnogu]

4.9 CoreMarks/MHZ is an insanely high number for an in-order design.
For reference: an in-order ARM A53 performs at 2.6 CoreMarks/MHz, while an out-of-order ARM A57 gets 4.03 CoreMarks/MHz.

It is often that HW manufacturers will multiply their CoreMarks by number of cores. Does anyone know how many cores are there in that chip design?
If it is a 2-core design, at 2.45 CoreMarks/MHz, that is still a respectable number - with a little bit higher frequency, it is core-for-core comparable to Raspberry PI (although half as many cores).

According to this slide they seem to really claim that they have 4.9 CoreMark/MHz for a single core.




That'd make SweRV faster than A15 and not very far from IvyBridge. Do you buy that claim? I don't :-)

Is CoreMark really used in the embedded space? I remember reviewing the benchmark before it was released (during Cortex-A9 design) and it was just horrible. The feedback I gave was: anyone programming a CRC the way it's done would never be accepted in my team.

[c117152]

This is a beefy microcontroller, but still a microcontroller, I really doubt Linux can (or should be hacked to) run decently in it.

You need an OS only if you want to run third party software in a half-safe environment, and a storage controller is NOT a processor where it makes sense to run random code on. It has a single purpose. It is served better by a bare metal firmware.

You're assuming a single line of products. Besides, going 28nm means they have room to spare for an MCU and a dedicated DSP.

[starshipeleven]

You're assuming a single line of products. Besides, going 28nm means they have room to spare for an MCU and a dedicated DSP.

Yeah sure it can be improved upon and eventually become something better, with RiscV this can sure happen, if someone takes it and invests in it.

It's just that I see that what is developed as a microcontroller will usually remain a microcontroller because whoever designed it needs to sell to that type of market.

There have been forays in the "applications processor" from microcontroller manufacturers in the past and it was still not anywhere near useful for general-purpose computing.

Like the Atmel/Microchip AT91. It's still designed for very very very embedded usecase, great and all, but not really something you want on a SBC.

[c117152]

but not really something you want on a SBC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32

[starshipeleven]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32

Yeah ok, microcontrollers are computers too, point taken. I keep disregarding them when I think of "computer", how racist of me.