OpenPiton Open Source Research Processor
Download, build, tape-out!
OpenPiton is the worlds first open source, general-purpose, multithreaded, manycore processor and framework. It is based on the Princeton Piton processor which was designed from December 2013 and taped-out in March 2015 by the Princeton Parallel Group. OpenPiton is open source across the entire computing stack, from the hardware to the firmware and software. Researchers and industry experts from many fields can utilize OpenPiton to modify any part of the stack and evaluate their ideas at scale. The hardware can be easily synthesized to FPGA and run an OS and applications at reasonable speeds for realistic evaluations. OpenPiton is designed to be highly configurable, including core count, cache sizes, and NoC topology, enabling it to adapt to different use cases. OpenPiton has an active community of users and is supported by the Princeton Parallel Group. Some of the features of OpenPiton include:
- Open source (BSD uncore) manycore
- Written in Verilog HDL
- Scalable up to 1/2 Billion Cores
- Configurable core and uncore
- Includes synthesis and back-end flows for ASIC and FPGA
- Support for multiple target FPGA boards
- Runs full stack multi-user Debian Linux
- Multiple I/O device options, including Ethernet
You can download RTL resources and corresponding infrastructure for free. Your download also includes OpenPiton documentation.
You can also clone OpenPiton on GitHub
You can also leverage the Piton printed circuit board (PCB) design as a good reference or starting point.
You can discuss your possible issues in this discussion group. Our team members keep an eye out for helping you.
Princeton Parallel Group mainly focuses on the design of future computing architectures and software systems for data centers and cloud computers. The group also investigates the broad area of green computing including how to minimize the impact of computing systems on the environment and how to design computer systems to be serviced and ultimately decommissioned in a sustainable manner.
Tell us if you are using OpenPiton. We would like to keep in touch with our users.
E-mail: openpiton (at) princeton (dot) edu 
This work was partially supported by the NSF under Grants No. CCF-1217553, CCF-1453112, and CCF-1438980, AFOSR under Grant No. FA9550-14-1-0148, and DARPA under Grants No. N66001-14-1-4040 and HR0011-13-2-0005. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors.
