The latest development in the open-source RISC-V architecture brings about lots of possibilities to redevelop existing microcontrollers as witnessed with the new Mikron MIK32 chip. However, this is even more important for the countries who are looking to get more independent of western technologies and established themselves as self-dependent on technology.
Inherited from the USSR, the modern Russian Federation has its CPU architecture (Elbrus) and platforms to build PCs and servers. Many Russian companies develop various Arm-based system-on-chips and controllers and the country also has its 300-mm equipment which the country purchased from an AMD’s fab near Dresden in the early 2000s.
All this latest development means that Russia could at least in theory build CPUs for its own domestic needs. However, there are still some major caveats. Elbrus processors were designed to power specific mission-critical applications and cannot be efficiently used for all types of workloads.
However other CPU architectures are developed in the UK and the US but only actual logic chips are built in Taiwan. However, nearly all of the many supporting ICs and microcontrollers are developed in Europe or the USA, which makes it impossible for Russia to replace any significant portion of technology that it will use for its homegrown chips.
But there is a solution to this problem and this is where the Zelenograd-based Mikron comes into play with its MIK32 chip based on the RISC-V architecture. The chip is a classic microcontroller that features an RV32IMC core running at 32 MHz.
There are also all types of I/O involved that include I2C, UART, SPI, ADC, DAC interfaces, along with numerous timers and an interrupt controller. The microcontroller can also be used for various applications, that includes gas/water meters, industrial sensors, and healthcare equipment.
