Integrated development environment for teaching and research on RISC-V processors

Sponsors

CREATOR release

Documentation of CREATOR

Documentation about CREATOR is available at:
https://creatorsim.github.io/wiki/

The source code of CREATOR

Source code is at the GitHub repo:
https://github.com/creatorsim/creator

CREATOR tool

CREATOR is available at:
https://creatorsim.github.io/creator

Objectives

The main goal of this project is to improve and evolve the CREATOR tool, used as the basis for this project, to obtain a new integrated development environment (IDE) that will be used as a tool for learning the RISC-V instruction set and for researching new RISC-V instructions and extensions. The new platform will include a more attractive and robust visual interface, a new more efficient compiler, support for 64 bits, vector instructions, and hardware support for different microcontrollers and RISC-V boards. The project will also develop different use cases and materials that can be easily used in universities, vocational training centers, and companies. To motivate and bring the use of RISC-V closer to students at universities and vocational training centers, the new environment will incorporate the possibility of working with Arduino-based RISC-V microcontrollers. Many students already have experience working with Arduino. The idea is to provide an environment for students to develop projects for Arduino directly in RISC-V, thus making learning this assembler more attractive. The new environment will contribute, on the one hand, to the training process for new professionals that the processor industry will demand, helping companies and training centers to make the transition to RISC-V. Moreover, it will also contribute to improving research activities, as it will enable the rapid prototyping of new extensions to the RISC-V instruction set and allow the impact of new RISC-V instructions to be analyzed and understood.

To achieve the overall goal, the project will pursue the following specific objectives:
• O1. Obtain a new integrated development environment for learning and research on RISC-V.
• O2. Develop use cases and training materials on RISC-V processors.
• O3. Plan and coordinate project activities and promote the dissemination of results to increase their impact.

Work packages

WP1. New integrated development environment for learning and research on RISC-V

O1. This work package will involve developing the new environment with a more attractive and robust visual interface, a new and more efficient compiler, support for 64 bits, vector instructions, and hardware support for RISC-V microcontrollers. The new IDE will also integrate a tool developed by the research group that allows users to understand the basic operation of a RISC-V processor at the control signal level.

WP2. Development of use cases and training materials on RISC-V processors

O2. To develop use cases and training materials on RISC-V processors

WP3. Coordination and scheduling of activities

O3. To plan and coordinate project activities and promote the dissemination of results to increase their impact.

Deliverables

WP1. New integrated development environment for learning and research on RISC-V

• D1.1. Report on the design of the new instruction definition model and compiler
• D1.2. New Development Environment Design Report



WP2. Development of use cases and training materials on RISC-V processors

• D2.1. User manual, use cases, and materials for microcontrollers and RISC-V boards
• D2.2. User manual, use cases, and materials for microcontrollers and RISC-V boards



WP3. Coordination and scheduling of activities

• D3.1. Overall project scheduling
• D3.2. Interim project report
• D3.3. Final project report and conclusions

Publications

• 2025
• Simulador web para RISC-V basado en la especificación SAIL,
  Authors: Juan Carlos Cano-Resa, Félix Garcia-Carballeira, Diego Camarmas-Alonso y Alejandro Calderon-Mateos,
  Conference: Jornadas SARTECO
• Extensión del simulador CREATOR para integrar funcionalidades de Arduino: caso de estudio con el microcontrolador ESP32,
  Authors: Elisa Utrilla-Arroyo, Diego Camarmas-Alonso, Félix Garcia-Carballeira y Alejandro Calderon-Mateos,
  Conference: Jornadas SARTECO
• 2024
• CREATOR: An Educational Integrated Development Environment for RISC-V Programming,
  Authors: Diego Camarmas-Alonso, Félix Garcia-Carballeira, Alejandro Calderon-Mateos y Elías Del-Pozo-Puñal,
  Journal: IEEE Access
• Servicio de laboratorio remoto para la integraci´on del simulador CREATOR con hardware RISC-V,
  Authors: Diego Camarmas-Alonso, Félix Garcia-Carballeira, Alejandro Calderon-Mateos y Elías Del-Pozo-Puñal,
  Conference: Jornadas SARTECO

Seminars

• 2025
• CREATOR: un entorno de desarrollo integrado para la docencia y la investigación en procesadores RISC-V,
  Author: Diego Camarmas-Alonso,
  Event: CAPAP-H Link: https://creatorsim.github.io/content/publications/creator_capap_h_2025.pdf

Contact

Welcome to our contact page for the CREATOR Project!
We appreciate your interest in our work and look forward to hearing from you.

Whether you have a question, a suggestion, or just want to point something out, we invite you to get in touch with us.
You can reach us via email at creator.arcos.inf.uc3m.es@gmail.com, and we will do our best to respond to your message as quickly as possible.

Thank you again for your interest in our CREATOR Project !