Category: SiFive

SiFive RISC-V cores portfolio ranges from low power 32-bit IoT processors to more powerful, Linux-capable 64-bi RISC-V cores like the latest SiFive U84/U87 cores rivaling with Arm Cortex-A7x cores. SiFive Core IP 20G1 release further enhances the company’s existing RISC-V cores with performance improvements, higher efficiency, and a smaller footprint. Specifically, SiFive claims the SiFive U7-Series has increased load bandwidth up to 2.8x for memory-intensive workloads such as AI inference processing, and all of the company’s RISC-V cores can now run at lower power, with the SiFive U74 standard core running at up to 25% lower power while running Dhrystone benchmark. The SiFive E-Series processors which feature real-time capability are now available with the RISC-V Embedded extension (RV32E) which reduces the footprint compared to RV32I ISA with for instance up to 11% smaller area for the SiFive E3-Series. RV32E and RV32I have the same instructions set, but RV32E comes with […]

Earlier this week, we wrote about SiFive Shield open security platform as the equivalent of Arm TrustZone security technology, but the company had had another important announcement this week with the introduction of SiFive U8-Series Out-of-Order (OoO) RISC-V Core IP with much higher performance than the company’s earlier U7-series core and competing with Arm Cortex A72 core. At first, the company will offer two standard cores with SiFive U84 RISC-V core optimized for power efficiency and area efficiency, and the SiFive U87 RISC-V core with vector processing. SiFive U84 Performance & Efficiency We do not have much information about U87, but SiFive already published some interesting details about U84 cores. SiFive U84 core offers about 3.1 times higher performance compared to their earlier U74 standard core thanks to a 2.3x increase in IPC combined with a 1.4x increase in maximum frequency. Compared to SiFive U54, U84 delivers 5.3x higher performance […]