Digi-Key at embedded world 2023 with Microchip Technology

As computing at the Edge continues on its path of becoming more intelligent, Microchip Technology are aiming to bring a layer of improved utilisation and security to the scene. Working closely with RISC-V technology, Microchip’s goals are to make use of the platform’s openness to invent and innovate across the board.

Why RISC-V

• Openness and customisability
• Combination with FPGAs
• Massively expandable

Security at the Edge

One of the key areas for Microchip when it comes to intelligent computing at the Edge is security. Whilst having openness is incredible for innovation and design implications, it does open the systems and devices to a plethora of new threats. This is what Kellermann explores:

“A couple of years ago, [something like a smoke alarm] was just a sensor, but now it’s an intelligent sensor connected to the network.

“If something is connected to the network and has a processor inside and it’s not protected, it’s relatively open. This means an adversary could get into that system a trigger a false alarm for example. Doesn’t sound so bad, but what happens when that device is then connected to the network.”

This is where Microchip Technology is working to secure these devices for the future.

RISC-V-based System-on-Chip (SoC) FPGAs

Another area Microchip highlighted was its work on the FPGA side of the technology where it has been introducing SoC Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to support royalty-free RISC-V open Instruction Set Architecture’s (ISA).

Titled the PolarFire SoC FPGA range, the MPFS250T and the previously announced MPFS025T have been designed to be fully integrable with computing at the intelligent Edge, offering a highly level of innovation and customisation.

Microchip also continues to work on streamlining RISC-V adoption with its Mi-V ecosystem which enables a new class of smaller, more power-efficient, and less costly industrial, IoT and other edge-compute products.