docs/source/introduction.rst

Introduction
============


The efabless Caravel chip is a ready-to-use test harness for creating designs with the Google/Skywater 130nm Open PDK.
The Caravel harness comprises a small RISC-V microprocessor based on the simple 2-cycle PicoRV32 RISC-V core implementing the RV32IMC instruction set (see `riscv.org page <http://riscv.org>`_), a 32-bit wishbone bus, and an approximately 2.8mm x 2.8mm open area for the placement of user IP blocks.

.. figure:: _static/caravel_management_soc_simplified_block_diagram.svg
      :name: caravel_management_soc_simplified_block_diagram
      :alt: Caravel management SoC simplified block diagram
      :align: center
            
      Caravel management SoC simplified block diagram

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The documentation contains the following chapters:

* :doc:`description` contains the general information about the Efabless Caravel "harness" SoC,
* :doc:`pinout` describes the pinout of the SoC,
* :doc:`gpio` describes GPIO and its registers,
* :doc:`housekeeping-spi` describes the SPI responder that can be accessed from a remote host,
* :doc:`qspi-flash` describes the QSPI flash controller,
* :doc:`external-clock` describes  the source external clock for the CPU,
* :doc:`uart` describes the UART interface,
* :doc:`spi` describes the SPI configuration,
* :doc:`counter-timers` describes two counter/timers blocks,
* :doc:`irq` describes the interrups,
* :doc:`sram` describes management and storage area SRAM,
* :doc:`programming` shows how to get started with programming on Caravel chip,
* :doc:`quick-start` shows how to add custom user project to Caravel harness,
* :doc:`memory-mapped-io-summary` lists the memory mapped I/O registers by address,
* :doc:`supplementary-figures` provides supplementary internal structure and die arrangement figures 
* :doc:`maximum-ratings` lists the parameters and their ranges at which the device operates correctly,
* :doc:`references` contains list of references,
* :doc:`further-work` lists things to be added to the documentation.