On: Recreating RP2040 PIO Interface in an FPGA

[bri3d]

The Pi engineers claim that at least some aspects of PIO are "patent-pending," [0] so a 1:1 reimplementation in another MCU would probably infringe on some claim or another eventually.

Yes, software defined I/O is not uncommon which is one reason I'm quite curious about the specific claims in the PIO patents. Another good example is the Infineon Peripheral Control Processor (PCP) used in Tricore. It's much more powerful ISA wise than PIO, but conceptually extremely similar.

0: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=307115#p18374...

[snvzz → bri3d]

Disgusting stuff.

Meantime, RISC-V is trying to standardize GPIO, Watchdogs and other common peripheral interfaces.

[MayeulC → bri3d]

I came here to inquire about this. The relevant patents haven't been published yet? I wouldn't include this in a commercial design due to potential infringement.