The second edition of the VortEx project has been published. VortEx is a project that develops an open GPU based on the architecture of the RISC-V commands. It is designed for performing parallel calculations using the OpenCl API and the SIMT (Single Instruction, Multiple Threads) approach. The project can also be used in conducting studies in the field of 3D graphics and the development of new GPU architectures. Schemes, descriptions of hardware blocks in Verilog, simulator, drivers, and accompanying design documentation are distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. More information can be found here.
The GPGPU basis of VortEx is the typical ISA RISC-V, expanded by some additional instructions necessary to support the GPU and flow management functions. The changes in the architecture of the RISC-V command set are minimized, and existing vector instructions are used whenever possible. A similar approach is used in the RV64X project, which also develops an open GPU based on RISC-V technology. More information can be found here.
For graphics on VortEx technologies, the open GPU project called Skybox is being developed. Skybox supports the graphic API Vulkan. The SkyBox prototype, created on the basis of the FPGA Altera Stratix 10 and including 32 cores (512 threads), achieved a performance of filling in 3.7 gigapixels per second at a frequency of 230 MHz. It is noted that this is the first open GPU with software and hardware implementation, supporting Vulkan. More information about the Skybox project can be found here.
The main features of Vortex:
- Support for 32- and 64-bit architectures of the RISC-V command set (RV32IMF and RV64IMAFD).
- Customizable number of cores, tasks