[throwaway000002]

I used to be a big champion of RISC-V, just look at my submission history, but I've become increasingly weary due to SiFive's dubious leadership.

1) It's still impossible for anyone to get their hands on an FE310 chip over half-a-year on from the release of the HiFive board.

2) They promised open-source cores, but somehow backtracked due to "customer requests". How does this make any sense? And if so, just have an open-source version, and a closed-source one that, I dunno, has a SiFive logo on the mask.

I was really inspired by them, now I'm mostly dejected. Still, I'm hoping someone like ST takes their peripherals and makes an MCU with a RISC-V.

[jackckang]

Sorry to hear that you're feeling dejected.

On your questions: 1) We are providing FE310 samples to folks who ask us for them at [e-mail]

See our past forum posts for similar requests: https://forums.sifive.com/t/assistance-getting-in-contact-wi... https://forums.sifive.com/t/e300-on-the-market-other-sbc-s-w...

2) We do provide both versions, just as you recommended. SiFive continues to maintain the Rocket repository at https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-chip

We intend to continue to maintain this core and ensure it's compatible with any updates to the RISC-V specification.

For commercial customers who do not want to utilize rocket-chip, we are providing them with other options.

-Jack (from SiFive)

[throwaway000002]

Thanks Jack for taking the time to respond.

Keeping the faith alive...