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SiFive, the first fabless provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors, today announced that UltraSoC will provide debug and trace technology for the SiFive Freedom platform, based on the RISC-V open source processor specification as part of the DesignShare initiative. UltraSoC's embedded analytics IP will be available through the recently announced SiFive DesignShare ecosystem that gives any company, inventor or maker the ability to harness the power of custom silicon. UltraSoC's debug and trace functionality will enable users of the Freedom platform to access a wide variety of tools and interfaces to use in their developments.
The DesignShare concept enables an entirely new range of applications. Companies like SiFive, UltraSoC and other ecosystem partners have developed efficient, pre-integrated solutions to lower the upfront engineering costs required to bring a custom chip design based on the SiFive Freedom platform to realization. The partnership between SiFive, originator of the industry's first open-source chip platform, and UltraSoC, the industry leader in vendor-neutral on-chip debug and analytics tools, significantly strengthens the ecosystem surrounding RISC-V, the open source processor specification which is often dubbed "the Linux of the semiconductor industry."
[...] Rick O'Connor, executive director of the RISC-V Foundation, commented: "The idea behind the open source movement is that one doesn't have to design everything from scratch. The idea behind DesignShare is to help speed the development of new silicon designs by reducing the barriers of cost, process and integration that have traditionally held back innovation in the semiconductor industry. SiFive, UltraSoC and the other companies that are making their IP available through DesignShare are fundamentally enabling this revolution in an otherwise stagnant industry."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday September 10 2017, @10:32PM (9 children)
CSB.
Several years ago I worked for a well known SOC vendor. We did a respin, typical, chips got 2-4 spins before being released to work out the bugs. We had a board that would randomly reboot up after 1 hour to 1 week. Nobody could figure it out, nor how to re-create it. Even had a "magic" laptop that "caused" the problem to happen more often.
At the time I was a roving problem solver, so I got the system. Quickly figured out it had reboot because the watchdog timer had fired (quickly because they called me in when it happened and they hadn't powered down the system, it it was a JTAG register read. Took it all to my desk, fired it up, and waited. (Relatively) quickly it rebooted, I stepped through the init code, which was an array of functions to call (init_this, init_that, init_me, init_you). 6th entry turned on the memory manager, after which all memory was in great shape. Figured out which process it was in when it crashed, and restarted it. While it ran I went over the code, especially any changes made to that process. Which was easy, because it hadn't changed in a couple years.
To keep a long story long, it rebooted again. Same process. So, I made a 255 byte in memory array with a pointer to the next entry. In the code I put a checkpoint at all decision points. That is, for code "if foo do this else that", I'd put checkpoint 10 at this and 20 at that. Every time a reboot happened I'd look at my checkpoint array to see where it was last, and add more checkpoints. Hell, I added checkpoints all over that code. Took 20 minutes to code and compile, days to get results. (Relatively) Didn't take long to narrow it down to a register read. It was a chip status register, and about 1 time in a million when it was read the chip hung. Commented out the read, and things were groovy.
Total time for tracking down the problem? Maybe 8 hours. Real time for tracking down the problem? About 3 weeks. Remember, it would run for on average 2-3 days before rebooting.
Worst part of the whole thing? We were short of JTAG boxes, and there wasn't one to spare for me to use for my regular work. I spent 3 weeks twiddling my thumbs waiting for a reboot, nothing to do but read code that had worked for years and hadn't changed, and surfing a young internet (I don't think /. nor fark existed at the time, or I hadn't found them yet).
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Sunday September 10 2017, @11:18PM
God bless git-bisect and OpenOCD.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 11 2017, @12:22AM (7 children)
Several? More like tens.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Gaaark on Monday September 11 2017, @01:19AM (4 children)
When you get old, everything becomes just a while ago until you stop and think about it.
I still have to think about how old I am: my brain thinks I am only 36: my body reminds me I am over 50.
Getting old sucks... If I remember correctly, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 11 2017, @01:53AM (3 children)
(off topic, but, fuck it) Amen. I am in my late 30's and realizing that since about 30, everything feels like it was just two or three years ago when it was closer to ten years. It's scary how time just seems to disappear in "gaps". I was just at my friends daughters second birthday party and we were talking about a trip we all made and realized it was 15 years ago. We all agreed that it only felt like a few years ago so it must be universal.
My theory? As we age we slow down physically and fall into a routine that blends one week into the next. 10 Wake, shower, eat, commute, work, eat, work, commute, putter, eat, putter, sleep, GOTO 10. This goes on to the point where you can't tell one week from another. "Did I do that thing last week or last month?" becomes the norm. I believe the antidote is taking up a physical activity to keep moving and taking more trips. You have to break up that bland routine. This gif sums it up perfectly: https://giphy.com/gifs/never-cycle-ending-9hPjzuqQh8Bna [giphy.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @02:08AM
> fall into a routine that blends one week into the next.
When you get older (I'm early 60s) it starts to seem more like internal clocks work on ratios:
+ from age 5 to 6 you age one year, or you are 20% older
+ from age 50 to 60 you age 10 years, also 20% older.
The two feel about the same subjectively (to me). New experiences are added a lot faster when young, we get jaded and don't do so many new things as we age. 20% more age adds about 20% more experiences.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday September 11 2017, @01:23PM (1 child)
Sounds like you are comfortable. Enjoy it I guess. You don't necessarily have to live like this.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 11 2017, @01:47PM
Yea, I've been in a rut lately. Changing little by little though.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday September 11 2017, @01:32AM (1 child)
I'm thinking 2004-2005. Based on looking at my resume more than anything else. I do know a couple years later my boss's house burned down in a big wildfire (2007).
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 11 2017, @02:09AM
Slashdot started 19 years ago! I was thinking mid/late 90's.