(1) For RVfoga: Computer Architecture and RVfpga: SoC courses
*The current hardware platform is Digilent Nexys A7-100T
*The regular price is $349 (USD) and the special academic price of around $260 (USD) is available on request from Digilent for qualifying academic institutions.
*Most major distributors and Digilent-direct sell this board, including Digi-Key
*Please note that the smaller -50T version is not big enough for the SweRV EH1 core
*The older Digilent Nexys 4 DDR is also fully compatible. Many universities already have this, and used it for the MIPSfpga course in 2015-17
(2) Future Developments
*We will introduce online study courses that use a virtual version of Nexys A7 called “ViDBo”. So no hardware will be needed for this.
- On EdX by in English by end 2022, and iCourse in Chinese in 2023
*We are also producing a version of RVfpga that will use the smaller SweRV EL2 core. This will enable most of the labs to run on the Digilent Basys3 board.
- Many Universities, especially in China, have this board or local equivalents.
*We are evaluating other FPGAs from different manufacturers – but it takes time to convert materials to these designs.
- If universities have ported to different manufacturers of FPGAs we would be pleased to hear from them, and will encourage them to share their experiences.