THEJAS32 is a 32 bit RISC-V microcontroller.  It is the first System on Chip (SoC) designed in India by CDAC as part of the DIR-V program of the MeitY, Government of India.  The ARIES development boards, based on THEJAS32, are also available sporadically. The microcontroller is available for purchase in India in single quantity - which is a big deal.

Unfortunately, the documentation around the THEJAS32 is sparse.  The datasheet lacks a lot of detail, and there is no reference manual.  The ARIES boards are closed source (no vendor does this!), making it difficult to build devices. On the software side, the boards support Arduino.  There have been some attempts - notably the taurus SDK  to improve the software side.

The best use case for THEJAS32 is probably in education - a use case promoted by CDAC as well.  I believe a complete open source approach can radically improve the situation around the THEJAS32.

In this talk, we will take a detailed look at this project where I am creating an open-source hardware design (PCB) with the THEJAS32.  The PCB will allow attachment of Raspberry Pi HATs for hardware interfacing.  It will also interface with Raspberry Pi Pico. The talk will touch upon the unique learning opportunities this board can provide - such as clock and peripheral emulation, detailed performance benchmarking, and learning co-processing architectures.