ECAP5

Educational Computer Architecture Platform

The ECAP5 project provides researchers and students with a transparent, fully open-source hardware/software ecosystem.

Unlike closed platforms, ECAP5 is built around a modular System-on-Module (SoM) featuring a Lattice ECP5 FPGA. It integrates critical components for modern research:

• Processing: A documented and unit-tested custom RISC-V SoC implementation.
• Memory: SPI Flash, SRAM, SDRAM, DDR2, and eMMC.
• Connectivity: High-speed single-ended and differential pairs via a carrier board interface.

1. Hardware-Centric Research
   • Memory Controllers: Prototyping custom PHYs for DDR2 or testing emerging volatile memory technologies.
   • Custom Interconnects: Researching NoC (Network-on-Chip) or specialized bus topologies between the FPGA and external storage (eMMC).
2. Architecture & Processor Research
   • ISA Extensions: Implementing and testing custom RISC-V instructions for specific workloads (Cryptography, AI).
   • Cache Strategies: Developing non-blocking caches or specialized hierarchy levels for data-heavy applications.
   • Hardware Accelerators: Tight integration of custom RTL blocks directly into the RISC-V pipeline or as memory-mapped peripherals.
3. Application-Specific Research
   • Open-Source SDR & Signal Processing: Leveraging high-speed differential pairs to interface with high-end ADCs/DACs.
   • SoC Benchmarking: Using the platform to run real-world software to measure architectural performance.

ECAP5 acts as a production-ready hardware scaffolding, allowing researchers to focus on their specific innovation rather than reinventing the fundamental SoC infrastructure.

04/01/2026: Development is currently on pause.

04/01/2026: The ECAP5 platform has now been fully integrated and is working as expected. An experimental build of DOOM has been executed and a view was successfully rendered.

Running the following commands will create the docker image and start the container :

docker build -t ecap5 .
docker run --platform linux/arm64 -v `pwd`:/home/ubuntu/ecap5 -v ~/.ssh:/home/ubuntu/.ssh --env TERM=xterm-256color --env LANG=C.UTF-8 --name ecap5 -it ecap5

docker run --platform linux/arm64 --env TERM=xterm-256color --env RUNNER=1 --name ecap5-runner -it ecap5
# In the newly opened shell
cd /home/ubuntu
./config.sh --url <repo> --token <token>
exit
# Start the container again
docker container start ecap5-runner