SIFIVE 21G1 UPDATE BOOSTS HASH RATES: SiFive Intelligence Platform Accelerates AI Operations by 4x

摘要

SiFive's intellectual-property (IP) portfolio is getting smarter thanks to its "Intelligence" platform and 21G1 release. At the recent Linley Spring Processor Conference, the company announced a new AI platform that uses the Intelligence extensions to reduce convolution-processing time by 4x compared with a standard RISC-V vector implementation. A few weeks earlier, it announced the 21G1 update, which increases SHA-256 hash rates by 35%, among other instruction-set and architectural improvements. SiFive updates its RISC-V IP through new releases that apply to its entire CPU-core portfolio. The latest, 21G1, packs a combination of software and instructional changes, and it upgrades the CPU subsystem. It balances multiple enhancements, such as flexible address mapping and better trace features, with performance and scalability improvements, such as core-local ports that improve bandwidth to tightly coupled accelerators. For the 21G1 release, the company is shipping RTL for general availability.