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.
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.
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.
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[ 5.7 ms ] story [ 33.2 ms ] threadI didn't know the concept of "Warrant Canary". [0]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
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.
This talk from 3c explains the hardware and operating system side of the project.
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.
Update from bunnie: