Microchip Launches Industry’s First SoC FPGA Development Kit Based on the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture

The rising adoption of the free and open RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is driving the need for an affordable, standardized development platform that embeds RISC-V technology and leverages the diverse RISC-V ecosystem. To meet this need, Microchip Technology is offering the industry’s first RISC-V based System-on-Chip (SoC) Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development kit for its own low-power, low-cost, PolarFire SoC FPGA.

Microchip Technology announced the new Explorer 16/32 Development Board for designing with 16-bit and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers. This new board is offered at a reduced cost from Microchip’s popular Explorer 16 Development Board and comes with an integrated programmer/debugger and several new features that address the latest embedded systems design needs. The board provides a flexible, convenient and easy-to-start tool while being backwards compatible to the classic Explorer 16 Board.