Dabao Evaluation Board for Baochip-1x

The Baochip-1x is a system-on-chip (SoC) that allows for inspectable hardware, making it a system that can be checked from silicon to software. The entire bootloader and most of the design source for the compute logic are open and not subject to NDA. The chip comes packaged with an Infra-Red, In-situ (IRIS) inspection feature, enabling non-destructive examination of the silicon to verify the chip's transistors.

Users can pre-order the Dabao Evaluation Board featuring the Baochip-1x, which is designed for entry-level embedded developers and hobbyists. The Baochip-1x features a 700 MHz, quad-core PicoRV-powered I/O coprocessor called BIO, which can bit-bang an LED strip, render simple animations, and manage GPIOs, inter-processor communication, and event handling.

The BIO is 100% open source and patent-free, allowing anyone to build chips using the BIO IP. The Dabao emphasizes evidence-based trust in its design, providing users with reasons to trust the Baochip-1x CPU. The manufacturing process involves buying wafers from Crossbar, who paid for the mask set, with Baochip being a hitchhiker on their mask. The die comes in two revisions, -A0 and -A1, with the firmware designed to run on both identically.