Open Source Summit North America 2022

RISC-V is a relatively new and completely open-source processor architecture which gained a lot of attention recently. Its existing low cost designs and relatively high computational power make it one of the most promising forefronts of for edge computing in IoT. Linux, on the other hand, is usually perceived as an operating system for data centers, servers and developer PCs. To make it's even more welcome out on the edge, it needs to be cut down in size to fit a wider variety of IoT devices -- preferably, without handicapping its functional richness and flexibility. This is where XIP comes into play. XIP stands for eXecute In Place – a technology that allows code to be executed directly from flash without copying the code to RAM first. It allows to save much on RAM, making it possible to run Linux on such devices as Kendryte K210, which has only 8 MB of SRAM, not only for demonstration purposes but for real applications as well. This talk will cover running edge computing specifically on K210 under Linux with XIP enabled.