Driving RISC-V Application Cores into Automotive and Industrial
MIPS, a GlobalFoundries company, offers processor IP, software, tools, and custom silicon platforms for advancing the next wave of physical AI. The adoption of AI into autonomous automotive and industrial platforms is transforming manufacturing, transportation and services, enhancing everyday life around the world. Functional safety systems are at the heart of these industries and MIPS develops processor IP with safety as a foundational element, ready to integrate in systems that will roam highways and factory floors safely.
Critical aspects of Systems with Functional Safety:
One of the most critical aspects of systems that move among people, especially those not tethered to a fixed location, is that they are designed and implemented to avoid harm and have robust measures to do so in a predictable manner by responding to the environment and state of operation. This translates into processes and design implementations that reduce risk, allows the system to detect faults if and when they occur, and minimizes any impact though safety functions that operate when required.
MIPS most recent IP product, the P8700, is a 2-way Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) Out-of-Order superscalar RISC-V CPU designed and implemented for Automotive Safety Integrity Level-B in support of D (ASIL B(D))-compliance. It has recently completed its safety certification, which covers both random hardware faults (ASIL-B) and systematic faults (ASIL-D), based on Resiltech’s comprehensive audit and assessment of the functional safety development flow in accordance with the ISO 26262:2018 standard.
The Design of Embedded Applications Processors
The P8700 is a leading embedded processor targeting Automotive, Industrial, Communications, and other embedded markets providing a scalable solution for Linux- (or other HLOS- and RTOS-) based applications.
The P8700 is the first out-of-order SMT RISC-V processor to be certified for ASIL-B and is ready today for new SoC designs.
Scalable Embedded Processing for Autonomous Systems
As we advance towards systems with more autonomy, the amount of sensor data and data processing is exploding, requiring complex processing on multiple advanced CPU cores mixed with custom hardware blocks. The workloads running in these systems are getting more diverse and include a mix of compute-intensive tasks, low-latency control tasks, and data movement tasks, keeping the processor busy sensing and reacting to the world around it. Having a scalable compute solution capable of doing many things concurrently is essential, while maintaining an adherence to the functional safety needs required of the system.
The scalability that comes with the multi-threading and multi-core cluster design, combined with compliance to functional safety ASIL-B, makes the P8700 a great choice for advanced functional safety systems. It is well suited for Autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), Automotive and Industrial Networking, Industrial Robotics, and many more applications where an embedded processor is needed to manage complex workloads.
MIPS P8700 Embedded Applications Processor Highlights:
The processor implements a 16-stage out-of-order pipeline with 1- or 2-way simultaneous multithreading (SMT) and support for clusters of up to six CPUs. Each multi-core cluster is brought together by the MIPS Coherence Manager, which includes the last-level cache and multiple, flexible options for the system integrator to connect to the rest of the SoC, allowing a highly customized solution for managing control and dataflow. Details of the benefits of MIPS multithreading for automotive platforms, such as ADAS, can be found in our whitepaper, here: https://www.mips.com/p8700adaswp
For more information on the MIPS RISC-V P8700, please go to our product page, here: https://mips.com/products/hardware/p8700/
