Physical Design of UET-RVMCU: A Streamlined Open-Source RISC-V Microcontroller
2026-03-30 • Hardware Architecture
Hardware Architecture
AI summaryⓘ
The authors designed and built a simple and small RISC-V microcontroller called UET-RVMCU by making a bigger processor design simpler and adding basic input/output features. They removed complex parts like the memory management unit and shortened the processor steps to make it easier to use for small devices. They used freely available tools to turn their design into a physical chip layout. Their work shows it's possible to take a complicated processor and turn it into a basic chip for embedded systems while keeping it open source and easy to understand.
RISC-Vmicrocontrollerpipeline stagesMMUGPIOSoCRTL-to-GDS flowOpenLaneGDSII layoutembedded systems
Authors
Abdullah Azhar, Uneeb Kamal, Wajid Ali, Saad Gillani, Dr Suleman Sami Qazi
Abstract
This paper presents the design and physical implementation of UET-RVMCU, a lightweight RISC-V microcontroller derived from the UETRV-PCore. Aimed at creating an accessible and flexible open-source RISC-V-based microcontroller, UET-RVMCU simplifies the application-class UETRV-PCore by reducing pipeline stages, removing MMU functionality, and integrating GPIO peripherals. The final GDSII layout was generated using an open-source RTL-to-GDS flow (OpenLane). This project demonstrates the feasibility of transforming an application-class SoC into a feature-rich microcontroller suitable for embedded systems, emphasizing low area, design simplicity, and open-source development.