Intel Releases the RISC-V Pathfinder Development Kit.

Pathfinder attempts to make it simpler to experiment with chip IP and is available in both free Standard and premium Professional editions.

On August 30, Intel released the Pathfinder development kit for RISC-V to revolutionise how system software developers and SOC architects create new products.

"Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V demonstrates our continuous commitment to accelerate the adoption of RISC-V and stimulate the ecosystem around an open-source and standards-based vision," said Vijay Krishnan, general manager of Intel's RISC-V Ventures.

It enables the instantiation of several RISC-V cores and other IP on FPGA and simulator platforms, along with the ability to use leading-edge toolchains and operating systems. According to the vendor, Intel Pathfinder comes with solid software and industry-standard toolchains that facilitate smooth scalability for a wide range of clients. This saves time when building and testing various IP combinations in a single environment.

The Starter Edition and the Professional Edition are the two versions of Intel Pathfinder that are first offered. The Starter Edition is free to download and is aimed at hobbyists, academics, and the research community. The Professional Edition is geared for businesses producing RISC-V-based commercial silicon and software and offers a wide range of ecosystem support.

The mission of Intel's Incubation & Disruptive Innovation (IDI) Group is to find and develop new business possibilities, including those for its Intel Foundry Services (IFS). Sundari Mitra, chief incubation officer, corporate vice president, and general manager of IDI, claims that the introduction of the Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V will enable Intel to investigate possible business prospects and make these ideas a reality.

Key ecosystem participants such as Taiwan's Andes Technology, EDA software provider Cadence, IoT cybersecurity provider Checkpoint Software Technologies, Chips Alliance, processor IP provider Codasip, Codeplay software, Crypto Quantique, Fraunhofer IMS, Imperas Software, IOTech Systems, OpenHW Group, MIPS, RISC-V International, Siemens EDA, SiFive, SoC.One, STMicroelectronics and Terasic, as well as

Frankwell Lin, chairman and CEO of Andes Technology, expressed his excitement to be a part of the launch of Intel's Pathfinder for RISC-V. "SoC designers now have the ideal platform equipped with high-performance RISC-V compute and control processors for developing and prototyping complex AI SoCs," says Andes. "Andes' highly demanded 512-bit vector processor core NX27V and 64-bit superscalar multicore AX45MP have been successfully ported to the Intel Stratix 10 GX FPGA board."

As the brain of the Horse Creek development platform and for use with Intel Pathfinder FPGA-based development tools, Intel chose the SiFive PerformanceTM P550 core. According to Phil Dworsky, worldwide head of strategic alliances at SiFive, "Software developers may get a head start on the eagerly awaited Horse Creek boards with Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V, which is scheduled to ship this year. SiFive is eager to collaborate with Intel on this initiative, interact with shared clients, and foster innovation within the rapidly expanding RISC-V ecosystem."

The debut coincides with growing interest in RISC-V-based systems, as seen by the introduction of cutting-edge single-board computers like the StarFive VisionFive 2 and PINE64 Star64 and the announcement by Espressif that all of its next designs will be based on the open-source ISA.

On Intel's website, anyone who wants to try out Intel Pathfinder for RISC-V for themselves may sign up to obtain the Starter Edition right away.