Microcontroller add-on board adds RISC-V for GigaDevice prototyping
To cut development time, MikroElektronika (Mikroe) has added the SiBrain microcontroller add-on board to evaluate GigaDevice’s RISC-V GD32VF 32-bit MCU.
The SiBrain for GD32VF103VBT6 enables embedded designers to start prototyping with the GigaDevice RISC-V microcontroller immediately.
SiBrain is a standardised microcontroller add-on board, which allows very simple installation and replacement of the microcontroller on a development board equipped with the SiBrain card socket. According to Mikroe, the SiBrain standard has ensured compatibility between the development board and any of the supported MCUs, regardless of their pin number and compatibility. SiBrain is equipped with two 168-pin mezzanine connectors, allowing it to support MCUs with a high pin count.
GigaDevice’s GD32VF103 is a 32-bit general-purpose microcontroller that incorporates the RISC-V 32-bit processor core operating at 108MHz frequency with flash accesses zero wait states to obtain maximum efficiency. It provides up to 128kbyte on-chip flash memory and 32kbyte SRAM. A range of enhanced I/Os and peripherals are connected to two APB buses. The device offers up to two 12-bit ADCs, two 12-bit DACs, four general 16-bit timers, two basic timers and a PWM advanced timer. There are also standard and advanced communication interfaces, up to three SPIs, two I2Cs, three USARTs, two UARTs, two I2Ss, two CANs and USBFS. The RISC-V processor core is also tightly coupled with an enhancement core-local interrupt controller (ECLIC), SysTick timer and advanced debug support.
Nebojsa Matic, CEO at Mikroe, said: “SiBrain makes it easy for embedded designers to evaluate different processors without having to invest in many different development tools or wait for samples. This RISC-V IC targets a wide range of interconnected applications, including industrial control, motor drives, power monitor and alarm systems, consumer and handheld equipment, POS, vehicle GPS, LED display.”
MikroElektronika (Mikroe) said it is committed to changing the embedded electronics industry through the use of industry standard hardware and software.
In 2011, the company invented the mikroBUS development socket standard and the compact Click Boards that use the standard to dramatically cut development time.
Now the company offers 1000 Click Boards – which is ten times more than competitors, said Mikroe. The mikroBUS standard is included by leading microcontroller companies such as Microchip, Renesas and Toshiba on their development boards. SiBrain is Mikroe’s last standard, for MCU development add-on boards and sockets. MikroElektronika also claims to make the world’s widest range of compilers and additionally provides development environments, development boards, smart displays and programmers and debuggers.
