The PicoNut

The PicoNut project at the Augsburg University of Technology aims to develop a minimal and at the same time flexibly expandable RISC-V processor that works on common FPGA hardware and provides a complete simulator. The processor is intended to be used in teaching and research, in order to examine different computer architectures, the interaction between hardware and operating systems (Linux, FreeRTOS) and the integration of hardware accelerators, for example for AI applications.

PicoNut …

• … is a minimal, yet extendable RISC-V processor as an open source project.

• … runs on inexpensive FPGA boards, e.g. OrangeCrab or ULX03S.

• … is expandable with memory protection/MMU (Linux), AI acceleration, various RISC-V extensions.

• The hardware is modeled in SystemC (C++) in order to be able to build a powerful simulator from the same source code.

• Good software support is provided by RISC-V compatibility: GNU toolchain (GCC/GDB), newlib, FreeRTOS, Linux.

• Solid project management includes automated testing, project website and CI/CD techniques.

The project started at the beginning of 2024 and currently involves several enthusiastic students who are working on project work or theses.