Discussion

Precursor

sockbot: https://youtu.be/DaWkfSmIgRsThis talk from 3c explains the hardware and operating system side of the project.

DeathArrow: Two cores and 22nm doesn't scream performance if this is a general purpose CPU.

tliltocatl: Depends on your definition of general-purpose. It is much closer to RP2350 than to a Ryzen.

tliltocatl: ..which is a huge thing because AFAIK most Cortex-A SoCs on the market are full of undocumented peripherals. Cortex-Ms are usually sufficiently documented that you can bring them up from scratch. Once you want a MMU it's either "use our mainlined Linux drivers full of dark magic" (if you are very lucky - perfect if you want Linux, less so if you are developing your own OS), "use our Linux kernel full of binary blobs" (if you are less lucky) or, as a rule, "sign a NDA and don't even bother us if you aren't a billion-dollar corporation".(Started it as a minor edit, then decided to elaborate so moved it to a new comment).

sockbot: For those unfamiliar with this project:Baochip is a license-free RISCV implementation with MMU. It is custom CPU logic hitchhiked on another company's SOC. The SOC is dual CPU like the rp2340, but with the other CPU fused off.Xous is a an operating system that runs on the Baochip and an FPGA version of it.Precursor is a prototype mobile hardware secrets device. It has an FPGA that runs Xous and costs around $600. One of the core goals of the project is to make inspectable hardware.This baochip is the next step is to make prototype devices cheaper by running xous on the baochip instead of FPGA. The baochip is inspectable using a technique called IRIS.Bunnie is leading this project.

tonypapousek: His talk at Teardown last year was excellent; I’m glad to see development is still going strong.

jauntywundrkind: It's not general purpose. The comparison section of the crowdsupply compares versus: https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao#comparisons rpi rp2350 (2x cortex-m3) espressif esp32 (2x xtensa lx6) espressif esp32-c3 (riscv) nxp imxrt1062 (cortex m7) (from teensy 4.1) microchip samd21 (cortex m0+) microchip samd51 (cortex m4f) nordic nrf52833 (cortex-m4f) It is probably closest in spirit to a rp2350, which also famously has multiple powerful interesting i/o co-processors. rp2350 is 2+2 cpu+io-processor, baochip-1x is 1+4.baochip's bao io (BIO) coprocessors use a very slim risc-v core (picorv), compared to a very small bespoke state machine for the rp2350. Baochip also has an exceedingly capable set of hardware security peripherals. And a full MMU, which definitionally does make it something more than an regular embedded chip!!22nm doesn't sound like "much" I agree for a general purpose CPU. But rp2350 for example is 40nm. This is pretty ok for a embedded chip.

ysnp: Is the case that captures all RF still planned for the productised Baochip?

sockbot: I don't think so, because the Baochip is just the chip itself. Cases are more likely to be implemented as part of the application products, not the chip. The chip itself would never come with a case.

sockbot: https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao/updates/what-it-is...Update from bunnie: In my mind, the Baochip-1x’s key differentiating feature is the inclusion of a Memory Management Unit (MMU). No other microcontroller in this performance/integration class has this feature, to the best of my knowledge. For those not versed in OS-nerd speak, the MMU is what sets the software that runs on your phone or desktop apart from the software that runs in your toaster oven. It facilitates secure, loadable apps by sticking every application in its own virtual memory space.