Matthias "bitluni" Balwierz's Latest RISC-V Design Is a 160-Core "Supercluster" on a Single M.2 Card
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Abstraction: DIY 160-core RISC-V microcontroller supercluster on M.2 card
Key points:
- German maker Matthias "bitluni" Balwierz built an M.2 form-factor board hosting 160 WCH Electronics CH32V208 microcontroller cores across 10 sub-boards of 16 chips each
- Each CH32V208 is a single-core 32-bit RISC-V chip running at up to 144MHz; the board is "unassuming gumstick-format green PCB" with bodge wires on the back
- Board is not yet fully operational; attributed to "brownout" power issues possibly caused by unmatched, improperly terminated parallel traces and absence of a noise-limiting ground plane
- Balwierz calls the original plan of 10 vertical M.2 slots per node board "a terrible idea for many reasons"
- Source code and hardware design files available on GitHub (bitluni/Supercluster2) under unspecified license; maker warns "don't send the design to a fab before fixing it"
Connections: Risc V · Matthias Balwierz · Parallel Computing · Embedded Systems