WCH CH32V103 General-Purpose RISC-V MCU Offers an Alternative to GD32V RISC-V Microcontroller

Last year, WCH introduced their first RISC-V MCU with CH572 Bluetooth LE microcontroller which came with 10KB SRAM and a not so convenient 96KB OTP flash. But I’ve just been informed the company has introduced their first general-purpose RISC-V MCU family with several CH32V103 microcontrollers featuring up to 64KB Flash and 20KB SRAM, and all sort of peripherals you’d expect from a general-purpose MCU.

Simplified Block Diagram for CH32103R8T6 RISC-V MCU

WCH CH32V103 key features and specifications:

CPU Core – 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMAC) core @ up to 72/80 MHz called ” RISC-V3A”
Memory – 10KB or 20KB SRAM
Storage – 32KB or 64KB flash
Peripherals
- 1x USB 2.0 Full Speed Host/Device
- Up to 2x SPI (master/slave), up to 2x I2C, up to 3x USART
- Up to 16x 12-bit ADC/touch key
- 37x or 51x GPIOs
- Up to 3x general-purpose timers, 1x advanced timer, 2x watchdog timers, 1x Systick
Supply Voltage – 2.7 to 5.5V
Package – LQFP48, QFN48 or LQFP64
Temperature Range – -40°C to 85°C

WCH CH32V103 RISC-V MCU-Block Diagram & Memory Map – Click to Enlarge

There are currently four CH32V103 parts:

CH32V103C6T6 with 32KB flash, 10KB SRAM in LQFP48 package
CH32V103C8T6 with 64KB flash, 20KB SRAM in LQFP48 package
CH32V103C8U6 with 64KB flash, 20KB SRAM in QFN48X7 package
CH32V103R8T6 with 64KB flash, 20KB SRAM in LQFP64M package

The new family appears to offer an alternative to the company’s CH32F103 Arm Cortex-M3 microcontrollers with the RISC-V MCU having likely a lower power consumption. You’ll find a list of both Arm and RISC-V MCUs on WCH website (Chinese version only for now). For more details, you may want to check out the datasheet, again written in Chinese language. We will have to wait a little longer for development boards and get more information about software tools as I was able to find any details about either.

The launch of WCH CH32V103 microcontroller also means GigaDevice GD32V general-purpose RISC-V MCU gets some competition. The latter does have a larger family however with up to 128KB flash and 32KB SRAM, an RV32IMAC core clocked at 108 MHz, and a choice of 36-pin, 48-pin, 64-pin, and 100-pin packages.

Thanks to Kali Prasad for the tip.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.