VLSI System Design (VSD)

vsdsquadron

The vsdsquadron is an educational kit with general-purpose interfaces

that enables you to evaluate features of RISC-V ISA
Contents
1 Getting Started 4
1.1 Kit Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Web Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Board Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4.1 Form Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Caravel RISC-V SoC IO Bank Assignment for Individual Interfaces . . . . . . 6
1.4.3 The following table lists the important components of the vsdsquadron RISC-
V SoC Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Handling the Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.6 Operating Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7 Powering Up the Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Installation and Settings 9

2.1 Software Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Toolchain setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.2 Programming flow to run gpio test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Hardware Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Power Sources, GPIOs and FTDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3 Board Component Placement 15

3.1 vsdsquadron top view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 vsdsquadron bottom view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4 Appendix: Transmitting data over UART 16

4.1 Installing and running serial terminal to see messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2 Flashing UART code and viewing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5 Revision History 17

The VSD Website 18

Product Change Notification Service 19

Customer Support 20

VSD Devices Intellectual Property Protection 21

Legal Notice 22

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-1

List of Tables
1 Kit Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Caravel Bank Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4 Pin definitions and settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 LEDs for Power supply, GPIOs and FTDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6 Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-2

List of Figures
1 vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Board image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 Micro-B end of micro USB cable connected to board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 Data Flow - Compiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5 Type-A end of micro USB cable connected to laptop USB port . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6 Flash programming message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7 Data Flow - Flashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8 Data Flow - Executing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9 Silkscreen top view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10 Silkscreen bottom view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-3

 Getting Started

1 Getting Started
The vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit supports the following interfaces:
ˆ Caravel chip with VexRISC V processor

ˆ 10 Mhz External Oscillator

ˆ 38 General purpose Input Output pins

ˆ UART

ˆ SPI

ˆ 4Mb External Flash

ˆ USB Programming support over FTDI

The vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC device available on Kit is programmed using the onboard flash pro-
grammer through Caravel’s housekeeping SPI interface. Connect the vsdsquadron board using a
USB micro B connector to program the Caravel chip.

1.1 Kit Contents

The following table lists the contents of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit.

Item Quantity

vsdsquadron SoC Kit featuring the RISC-V Caravel device with 1

RV32I instruction set architecture

Micro USB cable 1

Quickstart card 1

Memory Stick 1

Table 1: Kit Contents

1.2 Block Diagram

The following block diagram shows the key components of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit.

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 Getting Started

Figure 1: vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Block Diagram

1.3 Web Resources

For more information about the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC device, refer to Caravel SoC page

1.4 Board Overview

The vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit features a Caravel RISC-V SoC with the following capabilities:

ˆ 10 Mhz External Oscillator

ˆ 38 General Purpose Input Output pins

ˆ UART

ˆ SPI

ˆ 4MB External Flash

ˆ USB Programming support over FTDI

The following illustration highlights various components of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit.

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 Getting Started

Figure 2: vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Board image

1.4.1 Form Factor

The following are the dimensions of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit.
ˆ Form factor is 84.00 x 52.00 mm
ˆ Maximum height of the component at the top side: 8mm
ˆ Maximum height of the component at the bottom side: 1mm

1.4.2 Caravel RISC-V SoC IO Bank Assignment for Individual Interfaces

Interface Caravel Bank Allocation

SPI U SI , U RX, U TX, U CS

User-defined LEDs IO0, U SI, IO36, IO37

UART IO5, IO6

Table 2: Caravel Bank Assignment

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 Getting Started

1.4.3 The following table lists the important components of the vsdsquadron RISC-
V SoC Kit

Component Label Description

on
Board

Featured Device

Caravel U4 Caravel is a template SoC for Efabless Open MPW and chipIg-
RISC-V SoC nite shuttles based on the 130nm node from Skywater Technolo-
gies

Power Supply

5V power J2 The board is powered by a 5V power source using USB which

supply input internally gets converted to 1.8V and 3.3V using LDOs

Clocks

On board X1 10MHz clock to Caravel RISC-V SoC device

10MHz HC-
MOS Clock
Oscillator

12MHz Two X2 12MHz clock which is an input to the FTDI Module

pin crystal

RISC-V programming and debugging

USB Pro- J2,SW1 Micro USB connector and reset switch to program the vsd-
gramming squadron RISC-V SoC device using RISC-V GCC
and Reset

Memory chips

SPI flash U5 32M-bit W25Q32FV Winbond Serial Flash memory device con-
nected to SPI pins of vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC device

General Purpose I/O

Light- L1- Four active-high LEDs connected to some of the user I/Os for
emitting L4 debugging
diodes
(LEDs)

Table 3: vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit Components

1.5 Handling the Board

To avoid causing any damage or malfunctions, it is important to be mindful of the following points
when handling or operating the board:

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 Getting Started

ˆ To prevent any damage, make sure to handle the board while taking electrostatic discharge
(ESD) precautions.
ˆ Power down the board by disconnecting the board from USB port

1.6 Operating Temperature

Designed for Room Temperature. The standard range for room temperature in Celsius is typically
considered to be between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (or 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit).

1.7 Powering Up the Board

Connect the Micro-B end of micro USB cable to the board as shown in below image and refer to
Installation and Settings section for programming the board

Figure 3: Micro-B end of micro USB cable connected to board

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-8

 Installation and Settings

2 Installation and Settings

This section provides information about the software and hardware settings required to run gpio test
on the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit in Linux Ubuntu 20.04 machine

2.1 Software Settings

2.1.1 Toolchain setup
ˆ Install PyFTDI library support. PyFTDI relies on PyUSB, which requires a native depen-
dency: libusb 1.x.
sudo apt - get install libusb -1.0 libusb -1.0 -0 - dev
sudo pip3 uninstall setuptools
sudo apt - get install python3 - setuptools
sudo pip3 install pyftdi
Listing 1: Commands to install PyFTDI library support

ˆ Install the riscv toolchain using below command

sudo apt - get install gcc - riscv64 - unknown - elf
Listing 2: Command to install RISC-V toolchain

ˆ In case this does not work, you can get the sources yourself here

ˆ Git clone the vsdsquadron software repository using below command

git clone https :// github . com / yathAg / v s d s q u a d r o n _ s o f t w a r e . git
Listing 3: Command to git clone vsdsquadron repository

2.1.2 Programming flow to run gpio test

GPIO test is a simple script to toggle all the GPIOs on the board.
ˆ Compiling: The commands and image below illustrate the process of compiling code.
cd v s d s q u a d r o n _ s o f t w a r e / firmware / gpio_test
make PART = < part_id >
Listing 4: Command to compile code

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 Installation and Settings

Figure 4: Data Flow - Compiling

ˆ Flashing: The commands and image below illustrate the process of flashing vsdsquadron
with the compiled code.
– Make sure Jumper J3 is removed
– Connect the Type-A end of micro USB cable to the laptop or Desktop (as shown in
below image) while holding down the reset button

Figure 5: Type-A end of micro USB cable connected to laptop USB port

– Run the command without releasing the button

sudo make flash
Listing 5: Command to flash code

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 Installation and Settings

– Release the button once you see the following message

Figure 6: Flash programming message

– The below image illustrates the process of flashing vsdsquadron with the compiled code

Figure 7: Data Flow - Flashing

ˆ Executing: The above steps should flash the board with the below message. This should re-
sult in L1, L2, and GPIO Led blinking with a frequency of 2Hz
python3 ../ util / caravel_hkflash . py gpio_test . hex
Success : Found one matching FTDI device at
ftdi :// ftdi :232 h :1: a /1

Caravel data :
mfg = 0456
product = 11
project ID = 00000000

Resetting Flash ...

status = 0 x00

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 Installation and Settings

JEDEC = b ’ ef4016 ’
Erasing chip ...
done
status = 0 x0
setting address to 0 x0
addr 0 x0 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x100 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x200 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x300 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x400 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x500 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x600 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x700 : flash page write successful
addr 0 x800 : flash page write successful
setting address to 0 x900
addr 0 x900 : flash page write successful

total_bytes = 2552
status reg_1 = 0 x0
status reg_2 = 0 x2
************************************
verifying ...
************************************
status reg_1 = 0 x0
status reg_2 = 0 x2
setting address to 0 x0
addr 0 x0 : read compare successful
addr 0 x100 : read compare successful
addr 0 x200 : read compare successful
addr 0 x300 : read compare successful
addr 0 x400 : read compare successful
addr 0 x500 : read compare successful
addr 0 x600 : read compare successful
addr 0 x700 : read compare successful
addr 0 x800 : read compare successful
setting address to 0 x900
addr 0 x900 : read compare successful

total_bytes = 2552
pll_trim = b ’ 00 ’

python3 ../ util / caravel_hkstop . py

Success : Found one matching FTDI device at
ftdi :// ftdi :232 h :1: a /1
Listing 6: Command to flash code

The below image illustrates the process of executing vsdsquadron with the compiled code

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 Installation and Settings

stored in flash

Figure 8: Data Flow - Executing

2.2 Hardware Settings

This section provides information about jumper settings, switches, and LEDs on the vsdsquadron
RISC-V SoC Kit.

Pin Header Function Active Low/High

J1 Caravel Clock Enable Active LOW

J2 Micro USB connector

J3 UART enable Active HIGH

J4 UART header

J5 FLASH Header

J10 User LED Input

Table 4: Pin definitions and settings

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 Installation and Settings

2.3 Power Sources, GPIOs and FTDI

The following table lists the LEDs for power supply, GPIOs and FTDI on the vsdsquadron RISC-
V SoC Kit.

LED Function

PWR LED 3.3V OK

GPIO LED Management GPIO

RX LED FTDI Receive signal

TX LED FTDI Transmit signal

L1 Caravel GPIO 0

L2 Caravel GPIO 37

L3 User GPIO 1

L4 User GPIO 2

Table 5: LEDs for Power supply, GPIOs and FTDI

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 Board Component Placement

3 Board Component Placement

The following figure shows the placement of various components on the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC
Kit silkscreen.

3.1 vsdsquadron top view

The following figure shows the top view of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit silkscreen.

Figure 9: Silkscreen top view

3.2 vsdsquadron bottom view

The following figure shows the top view of the vsdsquadron RISC-V SoC Kit silkscreen.

Figure 10: Silkscreen bottom view

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-15

 Appendix: Transmitting data over UART

4 Appendix: Transmitting data over UART

4.1 Installing and running serial terminal to see messages
ˆ To install picocom
sudo apt install picocom
Listing 7: Command to install picocom

ˆ Launch picocom using

picocom -b 9600
/ dev / serial / by - id / usb - FTDI_Single_RS232 - HS - if00 - port0
Listing 8: Command to install picocom

– -b defines the baud rate

– /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI Single RS232-HS-if00-port0 is the serial id of the board it
can also be found using the below command:
ls /dev/serial/by-id/

4.2 Flashing UART code and viewing data

ˆ Compiling: The commands and image below illustrate the process of compiling code.
cd v s d s q u a d r o n _ s o f t w a r e / firmware / uart_test
make PART = < part_id >
Listing 9: Command to compile code

ˆ Flashing: The commands and image below illustrate the process of flashing vsdsquadron
with the compiled code. Refer to Installation and Settings section for more details on how
to program the board

– Make sure Jumper J3 is removed

– Connect the Type-A end of micro USB cable to the laptop or Desktop while holding
down the reset button
– Run the command without releasing the button
sudo make flash
Listing 10: Command to flash code

– Release the button once you see the ”Erasing chip” message
– Connect J3 and Power Cycle the board ( Turn off and then Turn On)
– Open serial terminal to see the message ”Hello from VSDSQUADRON”

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-16

 Revision History

5 Revision History
The document’s revision history provides a record of the alterations made to it, listed in chrono-
logical order, with the most recent revision first.

Revision Date Description

1.0 - This is the first publication of

this document

Table 6: Revision History

©2023 VLSI System Design (VSD) User Guide SQ-REV1-page-17

The VSD Website
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Product Change Notification Service
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Customer Support
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VSD Devices Intellectual Property Protection
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Legal Notice
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