XiangShan: An Open Source Project for High-Performance RISC-V Processors Meeting Industrial-Grade Standards
Kaifan Wang, Jian Chen, Yinan Xu, Zihao Yu, Wei He, Dan Tang, Ninghui Sun, Yungang Bao · IEEE Micro · 2025
It is widely believed that an open-source hardware ecosystem can reduce development costs and lower barriers to innovation. However, developing an open-source industrial-grade high-performance processor is a challenging undertaking. For mass adoption, such an IP needs to have an advanced microarchitecture that supports out-of-order execution for high performance, a robust verification infrastructure for reliable quality, and high configurability to enable diverse use cases. With best-in-class performance, XiangShan is an open-source project for RISC-V processors that fully meets these requirements. To maximize overall efficiency, XiangShan adopted a collaborative hardware development model, teaming up with industry partners on processor design, implementation, and verification. Through innovations in agile development processes and tools, the design of the processors can be evolved, optimized and verified quickly, ensuring high quality and enabling architectural innovation and rapid commercialization.