RISC-V Processors Lecture 7– Part I: Understanding RISC-V Architecture

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Questions and Answers

What is the main goal for defining RISC-V?

To create an open ISA freely available to academia and industry

What was RISC-V originally defined to support?

Support for education and research in Computer Architecture

Why has RISC-V grown into an open standard and architecture for the industry?

Because the industry has adopted it as a free standard and open architecture

What does RISC-V aim to avoid in its Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)?

Avoid over-architecting for a particular microarchitecture style Signup and view all the answers

Which document enumerates the goals for defining RISC-V?

Technical Report UCB/EECS-2014-54 Signup and view all the answers

What type of implementation is RISC-V suitable for?

Any native hardware implementation, not just simulation or binary translation Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'small base integer ISA' in RISC-V architecture?

To serve as a base for customized accelerators Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'accelerator' refer to in the context of RISC-V hardware platform terminology?

A unit that is attached to a RISC-V core and operates autonomously Signup and view all the answers

Why does the RISC-V specification avoid defining implementation details as much as possible?

To be a software-visible interface to a wide variety of hardware implementations Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of optional variable-length instructions in RISC-V architecture?

To expand available instruction decoding space Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'coprocessor' refer to in the context of RISC-V hardware platform terminology?

A unit mostly sequenced by a RISC-V instruction stream but contains additional architectural state and extensions Signup and view all the answers

Why does a RISC-V core support multiple hardware threads?

To support multithreading Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'classic privileged' features in RISC-V specification?

To define the privileged features of RISC-V Signup and view all the answers

What feature does a RISC-V core with additional specialized instruction-set extensions or an added coprocessor have?

Limited autonomy relative to the primary RISC-V instruction stream Signup and view all the answers

Why is the RISC-V ISA considered as a software-visible interface to a wide variety of hardware implementations?

Due to its avoidance of defining specific hardware implementations Signup and view all the answers

What is a component termed if it contains an independent instruction fetch unit in a RISC-V hardware platform?

'RISC-V-compatible core' Signup and view all the answers

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Study Notes

RISC-V is a new Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) that was originally developed for education and research in Computer Architecture, but has since grown into a free standard and open architecture used by industry.
Goals for defining RISC-V include: a completely open ISA, a real ISA for native hardware implementation, avoidance of over-architecting, support for both 32-bit and 64-bit address spaces, extensive user-level ISA extensions, and a fully virtualizable ISA.
The RISC-V specification is a software-visible interface to various hardware implementations, divided into two volumes: one for the "base unprivileged" instructions and one for the "classic privileged" features.
A RISC-V hardware platform may contain one or more RISC-V-compatible cores, other non-RISC-V cores, fixed-function accelerators, physical memory structures, I/O devices, and an interconnect structure.
A RISC-V core may have additional specialized instruction-set extensions or a coprocessor, which is a unit attached to a RISC-V core that contains additional architectural state and instruction-set extensions and has some limited autonomy.
The term accelerator refers to a non-programmable fixed-function unit or a core that can operate autonomously.