HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board
At its core, the HiFive Unleashed Expansion Board adds PCIe root port capability to the HiFive Unleashed board, enabling you to create a RISC-V PC. Use it to add HDD’s, SSDs, audio cards, network adapters, and/or graphics cards. You can port your Linux distro to this platform along with all of your favorite packages. Accelerate software development with an out-of-the-box solution.
Features and Specifications
The board comes pre-programmed with a ChipLink to PCIe Root Port bridge enabling easy connectivity to PCIe add-in cards. The board also has additional expansion capabilities for bit streams yet to come.
- 300K logic element, low power PolarFire FPGA
- 24 lane PCIe Switch
- x1 PCI Express card connector
- x16 PCI Express card connector with four lanes of PCIe gen2 connected
- SSD M.2 connector
- SATA connector
- HDMI connector
- eMMC Nand Flash
- uSD card slot
- USB to UART bridges
- 4 Gbit DDR4 x16
- SPI Flash for remote FPGA updates, QSPI Flash connected to GPIO
- Two CAN transceivers
- FMC connection to HFU540-4A00 kit
FPGA Design Software
Included with the purchase of the kit is a free, one year Libero GOLD License ($995 value). Initially, the kit will include only a fixed bitstream that can enable a PCIe Root Complex. In the future, the kit will be available to other solutions.
Block Diagram
As you can see from the block diagram, there is more to this board than just adding PCIe to the [HiFive Unleashed Board].
Use Cases
- Build a RISC-V PC
- Add a graphics card, an HDD, and/or a PCIe USB card for keyboard and mouse
- Use as a Linux development workstation
- Port your favorite packages
Board Dimensions
The board measures approximately 10.7” x 4.62.”
Board Layout
Here’s a cool picture of the layout. Connect an M.2 SSD drive on the backside for fast storage.
Getting Started
Order the HiFive Unleashed board from Crowd Supply
User Guides:
Bitstream:
Community Support
Get support from SiFive support forums.