When you think RISC-V, the first thing that comes to mind are microcontrollers and various special-purpose devices. However, the instruction set architecture is developing and is gaining popularity rapidly. As a result, more applications will adopt RISC-V. Ventana Micro Systems teamed up with Imagination Technologies to build a CPU-GPU platform based on the RISC-V, reports Jon Peddie Research.
Ventana Micro already has a RISC-V-based datacenter-grade Veyron V1 CPU IP (introduced in December 2022) that features an eight-wide execution and an up to 3.60 GHz frequency. The CPU IP is designed to pack 16 cores per cluster and scale up to 192 cores for performance-demanding applications. But as Jon Peddie rightfully reminds us, a CPU is just a CPU as it needs graphics capabilities to display the results of its work. To that end, Ventana had to team up with Imagination Technology for a RISC-V GPU, in order to build a platform that could address a variety of applications.
At the next RISC-V Summit, Ventana plans to unveil an emulation model showcasing how its RISV-C-based CPU works with a GPU developed by Imagination Technologies. This demonstration coincides with the launch of Ventana's Veyron V2, which promises to be a game-changer. The V2 is set to incorporate significant enhancements to the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), bringing it on par with competitors like x86 and Arm.
These enhancements include a hypervisor extension for robust virtualization, an advanced interrupt architecture, and sophisticated debug and trace functions. The Veyron V2 will also feature the RVA23 feature set, which will deliver over a 40% performance increase (presumably over V1), a 512-bit vector unit with AI matrix extensions, a server-grade IOMMU, and domain-specific acceleration. In addition, the platform features RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) software compatibility.
According to Ventana's projections, a 192-core Veyron V2 CPU is significantly ahead of AMD's 96-core EPYC 'Genoa' and 128-core EPYC 'Bergamo' processors in integer computations at the same power. Meanwhile, these are projections and it remains to be seen how the real hardware performs.
The collaboration project between Imagination and Ventana may look virtual for now, but the availability of RISC-V CPU and GPU IP could lead to the development of a RISC-V platform targeting diverse client applications.
