Alibaba has released nine user manuals for the T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V processor. These manuals cover various aspects of the processor, including video and audio processing, peripheral interfaces, memory interfaces, system registers, and the built-in NPU for video acceleration.

The TH1520 RISC-V SoC was first mentioned in the expensive web3-focused ROMA laptop in October 2022. Since then, there have been interesting developments with the release of Sipeed’s Lichee Pi 4A SBC and various other platforms based on the LM4A system-on-module. Both boards have preliminary support in mainline Linux, with the Lichee Pi 4A making it to Linux 6.5 and the BeagleV Ahead being added to the Linux 6.6 kernel.

The user manuals for the TH1520 processor were not released publicly until now. Sipeed and Beagleboard.org have made available nine user manuals in English, with the Sipeed link also providing the Chinese versions.

While these user manuals are useful for people writing drivers for the TH1520 SoC, some of the documents may not provide enough details to be truly useful, especially those related to the video blocks of the TH1520 processors. Nonetheless, having public documentation is a step in the right direction.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Sophgo SG2380 is an upcoming 2.5 GHz 16-core RISC-V processor based on SiFive Performance P670 cores and equipped with a 20 TOPS AI accelerator using SiFive Intelligence X280 and Sophgo TPU. It will be featured in a $120 desktop-class mini-ITX motherboard in the second half of 2024. The RISC-V processor supports up to 64GB RAM, UFS 3.2 and SATA 3.0 storage, an Imagination GPU for 3D graphics, and a VPU capable of 4Kp60 video decoding. The system can manage locally deployed larger-scale LLMs like LLaMA-65B without the need for external NVIDIA or AMD accelerator cards.

Sophgo SG2380 specifications:

• CPU
  • 16-core SiFive P670 (RV64GCVH) 64-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 2.5GHz with RISC-V Vector v1.0, Vector Crypto
  • Cluster configuration – 12x 2.5 GHz performance cores, 4x 1.6 GHz efficiency cores
  • Full RISC-V RVA22 profile compliance
• GPU
  • Imagination AXT-16-512 high-mid-performance 3D GPU with support for Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL 3.0, OpenGL ES 3.x/2.0/1.1; 0.5 TFLOPS, 16 Gpixels, and 2 TOPS
  • 2D graphic engine
• Video Processing Unit (VPU)
  • Up to 4Kp60 10-bit H.265/HEVC, 8-bit H.264/AVC, 8-/10-bit AV1, 8-/10-bit VP9
  • No hardware video encoder
• AI accelerators
  • 8-core SiFive Intelligence X280 with support for BF16 / FP16 / FP32 / FP64, INT8 up to INT64
  • Sophgo TPU coprocessor through VCIX interface up to 20 TOPS @ INT8 compatible with OpenXLA/IREE
• Memory I/F
  • Up to 64GB RAM through a 128-bit DDR interface
  • Support for LPDDR4 and LPDDR4x 3733Mbps with in–line ECC
  • Support for DDR4 UDIMM, SODIMM @ 3200Mbps (no ECC)
• Storage I/F
  • “UFS 3.2” (Note: currently published standards are UFS 3.1 and UFS 4.0)
  • SATA 3.0
  • QSPI NOR/NAND flash interface
• Video Output
  • eDP 1.2 up to 4Kp60
  • DP 1.2 up to 4Kp60 (USB-C Alt mode)
  • HDMI 2.0 up to 4Kp60 with CEC and eARC support
  • MIPI DSI up to 2Kp60
  • Support for dual video output up to 4Kp60
• Camera
  • Sophgo AI ISP with dual pipe
  • 6x 2-Lane / 4 + 4 x 2 Lane image sensor input
  • Interfaces – MIPI CSI2, Sub LVDS, HiSPi
  • 2x I2C dedicated to image sensor interface
  • Up to 6x 2MP cameras
• Audio
  • HD Audio codec
  • 3x DMIC
  • 3x I2S, 1 of them share pin with HD Audio
  • 1x PCM
• Networking – Gigabit Ethernet (RGMII interface)
• USB
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) with DP Alt Mode, Power Delivery capable
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB 2.0 interfaces
• PCIe – PCIe Gen3 with 8x+4x+2x+1x+1x Lanes
• Other peripheral interfaces
  • 3x SDIO/SD3.0
  • 2x CAN 2.0
  • 4x UART without traffic control function or 2x UART with traffic control function
  • 8x I2C, SMBUS supported
  • SPI/eSPI with 4 CS
  • LPC
  • PWM
  • Fan detect
• Security
  • Hardware AES/DES/SHA256
  • True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
  • Secure key storage, secure boot,
  • SiFive WorldGuard
  • 32Kb OTP flash
• Power Management – DVFS and ACPI support
• TDP – 5 to 30 Watts
• Junction temperature – -0°C to +105°C
• Package – FCBGA

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

AMD has announced the release of the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series, bringing significant updates to their Threadripper processors. The new series offers up to 96 Zen 4 cores, requiring RDIMM memory for Threadripper platforms moving forward. This update caters to both high-end desktop (HEDT) enthusiasts and professionals.

Compared to the previous Threadripper PRO 5000 series processors, the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series is a substantial upgrade. While the previous series topped out at 64 cores and 128 threads, the new series allows for up to 96 cores and 192 threads, matching the core counts found in AMD’s EPYC Genoa processors. The Zen 4 Threadripper processors can clock up to 5.3GHz, offer up to 384MB of cache, and include features like AVX-512 and 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

The Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series parts can reach up to 350 Watts. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors are in a league of their own at the top-end. Intel currently does not have any Core i9 Extreme Edition processors, and their much-delayed Intel Xeon W-3400 series only goes up to 56 cores. Even if one were to consider the Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids,” there is still a core count limitation. The Threadripper 7000 series processors are expected to provide an interesting battle against the Xeon Scalable processors, especially the Xeon Max.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series is divided into separate platforms for PRO and HEDT. The Threadripper PRO platform, with the WRX90 chipset, offers PRO manageability features, 8-channel memory support, 148 PCIe lanes, and support for Threadripper PRO processors. In the HEDT space, there is the TRX50 chipset, which lacks PRO management features, supports only four-channel memory, has 92 PCIe lanes, and is compatible with both PRO and HEDT Threadripper processors.

The Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series (non-PRO) includes processors with up to 64 cores. The Threadripper 7980X, with a 350 Watt TDP and a maximum turbo boost of 5.1GHz, leads the non-PRO line-up. Other options include the 24-core Threadripper 7960 and the 32-core Threadripper 7970X.

Source: Phoronix.

The Linux 6.6 kernel version seems to be delivering significant performance improvements for AMD EPYC server CPUs according to Phoronix. Tests conducted on Genoa and Genoa-X processors as well as Intel Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” processors showed that the performance of AMD EPYC servers was greatly enhanced with Linux 6.6 compared to Linux 6.5 stable. The improvements were especially notable for certain workloads.

The Linux 6.6 kernel introduces the EEVDF scheduler and workqueue enhancements that benefit chiplet-based CPUs with multiple L3 caches, such as those used by AMD. Overall, the new features in Linux 6.6 seem to be positively impacting AMD server CPU performance.

Source: Phoronix.

AMD has introduced its first hybrid chips featuring a combination of Zen 4 and smaller Zen 4c CPU cores. This marks the first time AMD has mixed two different types of CPU cores on the same chip. The new architecture is similar to ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture and Intel’s use of Performance and Efficiency cores.

The Zen 4c cores take up less space and have some modifications that may result in lower performance in certain situations. The new chips that feature this hybrid architecture include the Ryzen 3 7440U, Ryzen 5 7540U, and the Ryzen Z1. The Zen 4c cores support hyperthreading, but tend to be paired with fewer graphics compute units and may have less L2 cache memory. A more powerful variant of the Ryzen Z1, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, is used in the ASUS ROG Ally, which doesn’t use a hybrid chip.

Based on the chip model numbers, it is expected that the new Phoenix 2 processors will deliver lower performance compared to their original Phoenix counterparts. A report analyzing the performance of the Ryzen Z1 processor seems to confirm this.

Source: Liliputing.