CEVA extends its IP platforms for Bluetooth and WiFi with RISC-V

CEVA, the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for smarter, connected devices, has announced that its market-leading RivieraWaves Bluetooth and WiFi intellectual property (IP) platforms are now offered with an optional integrated open-source RISC-V MCU.

Rick O’Connor, executive director of the non-profit RISC-V Foundation, commented: “RISC-V continues to gain strong traction in the IoT space, where its code density, performance and power characteristics are ideally suited. Having a leading IP vendor such as CEVA providing Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity solutions for RISC-V is a further boost to our ecosystem.”

CEVA’s RivieraWaves family offers a comprehensive suite of IPs and platforms for embedding Bluetooth (both low energy and dual mode) and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax into SoCs/ASSPs. Within these SoCs, the protocol software executes on the customer’s choice of embedded processor. CEVA’s latest RivieraWaves platforms are the first to offer Bluetooth and WiFi IP solutions integrated with a RISC-V sub-system, including a comprehensive set of peripheral IP. These integration-ready system solutions are ideal for those customers seeking freedom from standardthird party processor architectures.

The RISC-V processor implementation is perfectly matched to typical IoT device requirements in terms of performance and die cost, with a Coremark/MHz figure of 2.44 in a gate count of under 20Kgates. Blending perfectly with the low power architecture of the RivieraWaves IP, the RISC-V based Bluetooth platforms offer the industry’s lowest clock frequency and most power efficient Bluetooth low energy and Bluetooth dual mode solutions. For heavier data loads, the RivieraWaves WiFi RISC-V platforms are the world’s smallest fully-integrated solutions, and scale from basic 1×1-11b-1Mbps up to 2×2-11ac/ax MU-MIMO-1201Mbps. These pre-integrated RISC-V based platforms significantly reduce the development time and bill-of-materials for CEVA’s customers, allowing for rapid product development and market introduction.

“Commercial freedom coupled with the ability to innovate are key aspects of RISC-V, which resonate with our customers,” said Aviv Malinovitch, vice president and general manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at CEVA.

“We have seen RISC-V quickly evolve from an exciting concept into an impressive alternative to mainstream embedded processors, especially for communication subsystems. By offering RISC-V implementations of our RivieraWaves Bluetooth and WiFi solutions, we have further extended the processor options for our customers, providing them a highly attractive alternative for their product designs.”

The RISC-V processor is compliant with the RV32IMC 32-bit ISA, supporting compressed instructions and integer multiplication/division. Coupled with the popular compiler/debugger toolchains such as GNU GCC/GDB and LLVM, and with growing support from major tool vendors including Lauterbach, the RISC-V processor presents a familiar and efficient software development environment for embedded developers.

With more than 1.5 billion devices shipped to date and dozens of licensees, the RivieraWaves Bluetooth and WiFi IP is widely deployed in consumer and IoT devices with many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies and OEMs. Optimized implementations are available targeting a broad range of connected devices, including smartphones, tablets, speakers, headsets and earbuds, hearing aids and other wearables, consumer electronics, smart home, industrial and automotive applications.