New hybrid chip. Is it an FPGA or is it a microcontroller?

[technix]

The chip in question is Gowin GW1NSR-4C.

It is a combined FPGA and Cortex-M3 microcontroller in one chip. Here are its specs:

FPGA part:

• 4608 LUTs
• 3456 FF's
• 10x 18k block SRAM
• 16x 18-by-18 hardware multiplier
• 256k bits onboard Flash
• 64M bits SiP PSRAM or 32M bits SiP NOR Flash
• 2 PLLs
• Built-in RC oscillator with 5% accuracy
• 39 IO pins for QFN48 package, 55 IO pins for BGA64 package.

MCU part:

• 80MHz Cortex-M3 core
• ROMless and RAMless
• SysTick timer
• Watchdog timer
• 2 peripheral timers
• 2 UARTs
• 1 GPIO controller with 16 GPIOs
• 1 external RAM interface
• 1 AHB Master port
• 1 AHB Slave port
• 1 APB Master port
• All ports goes into the FPGA matrix

[DavidAlfa]

I've seem also some chinese ARM mcus with 64MB embedded sdram. The only issue was no english documentation!
FPGA + SDRAM + powerful ARM dual core would be an absolute monster! I'm sure that will happen in a few years. More like a SOC than a MCU.

[AndyC_772]

Sounds interesting. Do you know where I can get full documentation, the IDE, and samples?

[technix]

Sounds interesting. Do you know where I can get full documentation, the IDE, and samples?

Just go to the linked page and you will get docs and the software. You need to email them for a free license to the software. You have to find the samples yourself though, as we are in the middle of a chip shortage.

[ataradov]

They seem to be impossible to find from any distributor other than aliexpress/ebay/taobao.

In the same family there are lower end FPGAs with USB HS PHY, which I don't get.  There is barely enough resources to implement a basic USB peripheral in the logic. There won't be much space for anything else. And Cortex-M3 side does not have hardened USB peripheral.

And for some reason USB PHY disappears on the higher capacity devices.

Also, the whole email to get a license is a bit sketchy.

[ralphrmartin]

Sounds interesting. Do you know where I can get full documentation, the IDE, and samples?

There are development boards for sale on aliexpress.

[SiliconWizard]

That's really not the first hybrid with MCU core + FPGA fabric. Tons out there already. But maybe it's the cheapest?

[coppice]

That's really not the first hybrid with MCU core + FPGA fabric. Tons out there already. But maybe it's the cheapest?

This doesn't seem to be an MCU core + FPGA. Its a complete MCU, with peripherals etc., + FPGA. I think that's something new.

[SiliconWizard]

That's really not the first hybrid with MCU core + FPGA fabric. Tons out there already. But maybe it's the cheapest?

This doesn't seem to be an MCU core + FPGA. Its a complete MCU, with peripherals etc., + FPGA. I think that's something new.

Well, once you know how to use the tools, the existing SOCs make it relatively easy to do the same. While the peripherals will be implemented on the FPGA fabric, you basically get the same features.

Now at least the Microchip Smartfusion has exactly this: MCU core + peripherals + analog blocks + FPGA blocks. While I don't know about Gowin prices, I suspect they will be much cheaper though.

I have seen some market analysis predicting a significant growth for hybrid FPGA+MCU/CPU SOCs in the coming years, so expect more similar stuff to come.

[julian1]

Yosys faq, states that it targets Gowinsemi GW1N. So that might be an alternate synthesis tool for the fpga side. 

[technix]

I've seem also some chinese ARM mcus with 64MB embedded sdram. The only issue was no english documentation!
FPGA + SDRAM + powerful ARM dual core would be an absolute monster! I'm sure that will happen in a few years. More like a SOC than a MCU.

I think what you mean is Allwinner V3s and F1C200s. Those are not MCUs, but full blown MPU's with 64MB MCP SDRAM and those chips are supposed to run Linux. V3s has a single 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 core and F1C200s has an ARM926 core.

[technix]

This doesn't seem to be an MCU core + FPGA. Its a complete MCU, with peripherals etc., + FPGA. I think that's something new.

It's somewhere in the middle. Zynq, Cyclone SoC and SmartFusion are complete MCU/MPU and FPGA side by side, while those "MCU core + FPGA" chips have nothing attached to the MCU core. Here with Gowin we do have bare minimal peripherals, even though it still relies on the FPGA to provide the MCU core with some of its critical components like memory.

They do have English DS, actually, I've never found their Chinese DS!

LOL me too. English DS only and very crappy English.

[technix]

Just saying, Gowin has a Aurora (or their next generation architecture) based FPGA with at least a 1GHz+ dual core RV64G CPU complex on their roadmap, and I have gave them the idea to embed 1.2V DDR4 SDRAM with that FPGA (since their FPGA of that generation will use 1.2V core voltage, the VCORE pins on that design would supply not only the FPGA core but also the DDR4 I/O bank and the MCP DDR4 die.)

I hope we can see that FPGA with dual-core RV64G and 1GB embedded DDR4 memory soon, hopefully still in that QFN88 package.

[ali_asadzadeh]

Just saying, Gowin has a Aurora (or their next generation architecture) based FPGA with at least a 1GHz+ dual core RV64G CPU complex on their roadmap, and I have gave them the idea to embed 1.2V DDR4 SDRAM with that FPGA (since their FPGA of that generation will use 1.2V core voltage, the VCORE pins on that design would supply not only the FPGA core but also the DDR4 I/O bank and the MCP DDR4 die.)

I hope we can see that FPGA with dual-core RV64G and 1GB embedded DDR4 memory soon, hopefully still in that QFN88 package

That would be a great feedback to them, if you can put some ideas on their design team, please tell them to add 6-10Gbps SEREDES to the chips too and we like the QFN88 package too.
Also more LUT and DSP inside the parts, like 100K lut and 400-800 DSP slices.

[JPortici]

There are development boards for sale on aliexpress.

do you have links? because i can only find a couple of entries for the GW1N-1 (FPGA only, the smallest part)

[technix]

That would be a great feedback to them, if you can put some ideas on their design team, please tell them to add 6-10Gbps SEREDES to the chips too and we like the QFN88 package too.
Also more LUT and DSP inside the parts, like 100K lut and 400-800 DSP slices.

I think you are asking for too much. I'm not sure if they can gain access to a good SerDes IP, and that would require silicon change. Getting DDR4 SDRAM in there is a much simpler request since it involves no silicon change.

GW5 is based on TSMC 22nm, and recently TSMC has announced not to serve and Chinese companies listed on the US entity list and MEU list, so I don't think GW5 is coming any soon.

That's why they are approaching the OSHW market to sell their left over GW1N and GW2A. I think after that they will be migrating to another fab and start over again.

Sad story. They are not Huawei who has the financial backing and the sheer volume, so if US want to they might be crushed into oblivion.

do you have links? because i can only find a couple of entries for the GW1N-1 (FPGA only, the smallest part)

I have my own GW1NSR-4C board design and it is open source. https://github.com/SushiBits/Gowinduino You have to source the chips yourself though.

[JPortici]

You have to source the chips yourself though.

that's the problem

[ralphrmartin]

There are development boards for sale on aliexpress.

do you have links? because i can only find a couple of entries for the GW1N-1 (FPGA only, the smallest part)

The only link I can find today is
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002369198795.html
which is not the same part, as you say. Yet there were definitely more items yesterday.
Ho hum... Next time I will be careful to give the full link when I see it.