SiFive Joins Microsemi's New Mi-V Ecosystem to Accelerate Adoption of RISC-V Open Instruction Set Architecture

As part of their collaboration within the Mi-V ecosystem, SiFive and Microsemi are jointly creating the HiFive Unleashed, a hardware and software development platform based on SiFive's Freedom Unleashed 500 (Freedom U500) system-on-chip (SoC) featuring the U54-MC RISC-V Core IP (intellectual property) as well as Microsemi's lowest power, cost-optimized mid-range PolarFire® field programmable gate array (FPGA). The collaboration and development platform will enable firmware, kernel and driver development engineers to develop their own RISC-V designs with operating systems such as Linux. The Microsemi/SiFive platform with its open ISA and core architecture will be ideal for a variety of applications within the aerospace and defense, industrial and security markets, including industrial internet of things (IoT), security and trust, space, industrial controls and avionics.

"Microsemi is pleased to welcome SiFive to our Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem as a highly valued collaborator on processor IP," said Jim Aralis, chief technology officer and vice president of advanced development at Microsemi. "The company's RISC-V leadership, expertise and development model support our team's ability to innovate quickly, offer lower power solutions and meet the demands of the marketplace. Working with SiFive also enables us to deliver a stronger RISC-V IP roadmap along with the integration of software integrated development environments (IDEs), debug and design platforms that can be used."

SiFive's Freedom U500 SoC consists of a five-core, 64-bit RISC-V CPU with coherent 2MB L2 cache subsystem, plus DDR4, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and ChipLink interfaces. Running at over 1.5 GHz, the Freedom U500 is the first RISC-V-based, Linux-capable SoC on the market. Microsemi's PolarFire FPGAs are cost-optimized, lowest power, mid-range density devices making them ideal for developing a wide variety of RISC-V-based applications. The PolarFire FPGA will interface to the SiFive Freedom U500 via a ChipLink interconnect and a variety of additional peripherals will be supported.  

"Joining the Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem enhances our important relationship with Microsemi while enabling the strategic alignment of our roadmap to facilitate additional end markets and applications for RISC-V designs," said Naveed Sherwani, CEO, SiFive. "We look forward to continuing our collaborative successes as we develop this unique hardware and software development platform and empower a growing number of system developers with access to RISC-V technology."

RISC-V, an ISA which is a standard open architecture under the governance of the RISC-V Foundation, offers numerous benefits, including portability as well as enabling the open source community to test and improve cores at a faster pace than closed ISAs. As the ISA is frozen, software which is written will always run on the RISC-V core, and since the RISC-V IP core is not encrypted, it can be used to ensure trust and certifications not possible with closed architectures.

"Interest in RISC-V is growing rapidly, with most leading semiconductor companies already supporting the RISC-V Foundation," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "As these companies start new designs, they create opportunities for ecosystem suppliers to support them."

About Microsemi's Mi-V Ecosystem
Microsemi's Mi-V ecosystem, part of Microsemi's Accelerate Ecosystem—a program designed to reduce time to market for end customers and time to revenue for ecosystem participants—brings together a number of industry leaders involved in the development of RISC-V to leverage their capabilities and streamline RISC-V designs for customers. Enabling third parties to access a growing platform for further RISC-V adoption and innovation, the Mi-V ecosystem provides firmware and hardware engineers a comprehensive ecosystem from a tier-one vendor.

Product Availability
The jointly developed HiFive Unleashed hardware and software development platform from Microsemi and SiFive based on SiFive's Freedom Unleashed 500 SoC featuring the U54-MC RISC-V Core IP and Microsemi's PolarFire FPGA will be available in the first quarter of 2018. For more information, email [email protected].

About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for aerospace & defense, communications, data center and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world's standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; enterprise storage and communication solutions, security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Ethernet solutions; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and has approximately 4,800 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com.

Microsemi and the Microsemi logo are registered trademarks or service marks of Microsemi Corporation and/or its affiliates. Third-party trademarks and service marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including statements related to SiFive, the first fabless provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors, joining Microsemi's new Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem, and its potential effects on future business, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as rapidly changing technology and product obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand, potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of products. In addition to these factors and any other factors mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Microsemi Corporation

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