Open-source Microprocessor
March 31, 2016 | ETH ZurichEstimated reading time: 3 minutes
In future, it will be easier and cheaper for developers at universities and SMEs to build wearable microelectronic devices and chips for the Internet of Things, thanks to the PULPino open-source processor, which has been developed at ETH Zurich and the University of Bologna.
Software source codes and hardware designs tend to be closely guarded trade secrets. Not so with open-source products. For instance, the code of open-source software is freely available to all: the best known example is the Linux operating system. Not only are interested developers able to use the software, they can also further develop it and adapt it to their own needs.
Open-source products also exist on the hardware side. Examples are open micro-controller boards such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi, of which blueprints are publicly available. However, these boards are based on commercial chips, whose internal architecture is not open-source. A few days ago, scientists at ETH Zurich and the University of Bologna, led by ETH Professor Luca Benini, open sourced the full design of one of their microprocessor systems – in a way that maximises the freedom of other developers to use and change the system, says Benini. “It will now be possible to build open source hardware from the ground up.”
“In many recent examples of open-source hardware, usage is restricted by exclusive marketing rights and non-competition clauses,” says Benini. “Our system, however, doesn’t have any strings attached when it comes to licensing.” The arithmetic instructions that the microprocessor can perform are also open source: the scientists made the processor compatible with an open-source instruction set – RISC-V – developed at the University of California in Berkeley.
Processor for wearable microsystems
The new processor is called PULPino and it is designed for battery-powered devices with extremely low energy consumption (PULP stands for ‘parallel ultra low power’). These could be for chips for small devices, such as smartwatches, sensors for monitoring physiological functions (which can communicate with a heart rate monitor, for instance) or sensors for the Internet of Things.
Smartwatch
Benini offers an example from the research currently underway in his lab: “Using the PULPino processor, we are developing a smartwatch equipped with electronics and a micro camera. It can analyse visual information and use it to determine the user’s whereabouts. The idea is that such a smartwatch could one day control something like home electronics.” It is quite a challenge to accommodate all this in the smallest of spaces on a microprocessor with a tiny power draw of only a few milliwatts, particularly since the computing capacity for the image analysis must be sufficiently large.
Joint development
PULPino is also being used in other research projects that Benini is working on with Swiss and European research institutions, including Cambridge University. The fact that the processor is now open source in these projects gives the ETH professor great hope: “Until now, such research projects came about mainly as a result of personal contacts, and the partners had to negotiate a separate license agreement for each project. PULPino is now more easily available. We hope that there will be more collaborations in the future and that these will also be easier.”
The scientists want to work with other project partners to jointly develop academically interesting extensions to PULPino; these would also be open source, thus allowing the number of the hardware’s functional components to steadily grow.
Interesting for the industry
But PULPino should also be of benefit to the SME environment typical in Switzerland and Europe. “The production of microchips has become cheap in recent years because semiconductor manufacturers have built up large production capacities that they must use,” explains Benini. More expensive is the design process: “It would be far too expensive in terms of engineering effort to design a complex chip from scratch, especially for SMEs. Instead, developers usually purchase pre-designed functional components that they integrate in the chip design. The licensing fees for such components are often a substantial portion of the overall production costs.”
Development costs are reduced considerably with the open-source royalty-free design, which benefits SMEs as well as ETH, says Benini: “It could result in new research and development partnerships with industry to jointly develop novel chip components on the basis of PULPino.” PULPino's developers are therefore planning to make their microprocessor more widely known to the open-source hardware community this year.
Suggested Items
Sondrel Awarded New Video Processor ASIC Design and Supply Contract
05/09/2024 | SondrelSondrel, a leading provider of ultra-complex custom chips for leading global technology brands, is pleased to announce that it has won a major ASIC design and supply contract for a next generation, video processing chip.
Connect the Dots: Designing for Reality—The Pre-Manufacturing Process
05/08/2024 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsI have been working with Nolan Johnson on a podcast series about designing PCBs for the reality of manufacturing. By sharing lessons learned over a long career in the PCB industry, we hope to shorten learning curves and help designers produce better boards with less hassle and rework. Episode 2 deals with the electronic pre-manufacturing process. Moving from CAD (computer-aided design) to CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) is a key step in PCB manufacturing. CAM turns digital designs into instructions that machines can use to actually build the PCB.
Indium Corporation to Showcase HIA Materials at ECTC
05/07/2024 | Indium CorporationAs an industry leader in innovative materials solutions for semiconductor packaging and assembly, Indium Corporation® will feature its advanced products designed to meet the evolving challenges of heterogeneous integration and assembly (HIA) and fine-pitch system-in-package (SiP) applications at the 74th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), May 28‒31, in Denver, Colorado.
Siemens Delivers New Solido IP Validation Suite
05/07/2024 | SiemensSiemens Digital Industries Software introduced Solido™ IP Validation Suite software, a comprehensive, automated signoff solution for quality assurance across all design intellectual property (IP) types, including standard cells, memories and IP blocks.
Altair Acquires Research in Flight, Forging a New Path for Aerodynamic Analysis
05/07/2024 | AltairAltair a global leader in computational intelligence, announced it has acquired Research in Flight, maker of FlightStream®, which provides computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software with a large footprint in the aerospace and defense sector and a growing presence in marine, energy, turbomachinery, and automotive applications.