SparkFun RED-V Thing Plus - SiFive RISC-V FE310 SoC

The SparkFun RED-V Thing Plus is a cost-effective development board that comes with the Freedom E310 core and RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). It stands out due to its entirely open-source nature, from hardware to ISA, allowing anyone to fully utilise the microcontroller without the need for royalties, licenses or non-disclosure agreements.

The RED-V Thing Plus is programmed with a simple bootloader and features a modern USB-C connector, which simplifies programming via USB connectivity or use as a JTAG interface via the FE310's NXP K22 ARM Cortex-M4. This board is Feather-compatible, making it possible to use existing shield options. The inclusion of a Qwiic connector paves the way for future use of the I²C Qwiic Connect System, which eliminates the need for soldering or shields. The RED-V Thing Plus is the perfect choice for your RISC-V project given its flexibility and growing industry functionality.

The onboard Freedom E310 (FE310) is the first of the Freedom Everywhere family of customizable SoCs from SiFive. It is designed for microcontroller, embedded, IoT, and wearable applications. The FE310 features SiFive’s E31 CPU Coreplex, a high-performance, 32-bit RV32IMAC core. With a speed of 150MHz, the FE310 is among the fastest microcontrollers in the market. Other features include a 16KB L1 Instruction Cache, a 16KB Data SRAM scratchpad, hardware multiply/divide, a debug module, flexible clock generation with on-chip oscillators and PLLs, and a wide variety of peripherals including UARTs, QSPI, PWMs, and timers. The RED-V Thing Plus is compatible with Freedom Studio software or a Zephyr RTOS build environment for programming and interfacing.

Note: Please note that Qwiic Libraries are not yet available for the Freedom Studio SDK or the Zephyr environment that runs on the FE310.

Features:

• Feather Compatible Footprint
• Microcontroller: SiFive Freedom E310 (FE310-G002)
  • CPU: SiFive E31 CPU
  • Architecture: 32-bit RV32IMAC
  • Speed: 150MHz
  • Performance: 1.61 DMIPs/MHz
  • Memory: 16 KB Instruction Cache, 16 KB Data Scratchpad
  • Other Features: Hardware Multiply/Divide, Debug Module, Flexible Clock Generation with on-chip oscillators and PLLs
• Operating Voltage: 3.3 V and 1.8 V
• External Wakeup Pins: 1 (& button)
• Host Interface (USB-C): Program, Debug, and Serial Communication
• Qwiic Connector

Documents:

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Dimensions
• Hookup Guide
• Freedom E310-G002 Datasheet
• Freedom E310-G002 Manual
• Freedom E SDK
• SiFive Forums
• GitHub Hardware Repo
• Compare Thing Plus Boards