Engineering:C-SKY
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C-SKY is a RISC-based 32-bit architecture developed by C-SKY Microsystems, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group's T-Head semiconductor division. The instruction set was derived by the M·CORE[1].
History
C-SKY Microsystems was founded in Hangzhou, China, in 2001. The architecture was developed to provide a domestic Chinese alternative to ARM and MIPS for embedded applications[2].
In April 2018, Alibaba Group acquired C-SKY Microsystems to bolster its chip-making capabilities. Following the acquisition, the company was integrated into Alibaba's "T-Head" (Pingtouge) semiconductor arm[3].
While T-Head has since pivoted heavily toward RISC-V (with the XuanTie series), C-SKY remains a supported legacy architecture with millions of units in the field.
Architecture
The C-SKY ISA is designed for high code density and low power consumption. It features two primary versions:
- V1: The legacy version, focused on basic embedded control.
- V2: The modern version, which introduced a 16/32-bit mixed-length instruction set (similar to ARM’s Thumb-2). This version supports hardware floating-point units (FPU), DSP extensions, and multi-core configurations[4].
Common CPU Cores:
- CK801 / CK802: Ultra-low power, 2-stage pipeline.
- CK803: Low power with optional FPU and DSP extensions.
- CK810: High-performance application processor with a 10-stage pipeline and MMU support for Linux.
- CK860: High-end multi-core variant with SMP support.
Software Support
- Linux Kernel: Support was officially merged in Kernel 4.20 (late 2018)[5][6].
- GCC: Official support was added in GCC 9 (2019), allowing for cross-compilation of C/C++ applications[7].
- Glibc: The GNU C Library added C-SKY support in version 2.29[8].
- Operating Systems: In addition to Linux, it is supported by various RTOS like AliOS Things and Zephyr.
See also
- Alibaba Group
- RISC-V
- Loongson (Another Chinese ISA)
References
- ↑ "18 cent 32-bit TSSOP-20 CPU" (in en). 2020-09-24. https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/172203/18-cent-32-bit-tssop-20-cpu.
- ↑ "Alibaba buys Chip Manufacturer C-SKY Microsystems - Xinhua | English.news.cn". http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/20/c_137124902.htm.
- ↑ 杨洋. "Alibaba buys Chip Manufacturer C-SKY Microsystems". https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201804/20/WS5ad9a553a3105cdcf6519964.html.
- ↑ ; 尹茸 & 尹建伟 et al."Binary tool set designing method based on C-SKY v2 instruction set" patent CN102681821A, issued 2012-09-19
- ↑ "Linux Gets Ported To China's 32-bit "C-SKY" CPU Architecture" (in en). https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-C-SKY-Port.
- ↑ "Linux kernel source tree - arch/csky". https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/arch/csky?id=9143a9359d051142081b26c3726c928f965c5eb7.
- ↑ "GCC 9 Release Series — Changes, New Features, and Fixes - GNU Project". https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-9/changes.html#csky.
- ↑ "Siddhesh Poyarekar - The GNU C Library version 2.29 is now available". https://sourceware.org/legacy-ml/libc-announce/2019/msg00000.html.
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