Bridging Embedded and Cloud Worlds: AWS Solutions for RISC-V Development

In a compelling keynote at the RISC-V Summit North America 2025, Jeremy Dahan from AWS explored the challenges of embedded systems development and how cloud technologies can bridge the gap between local hardware tinkering and scalable, shareable environments. Drawing from his experience as an engineer, Dahan highlighted the desire for desktop-accessible hardware for rapid prototyping, contrasted with the difficulties of sharing setups across teams, suppliers, and global collaborators. The cloud’s infinite compute and easy accessibility offer a solution, and AWS is positioned to combine these worlds for RISC-V developers.

Dahan framed virtualization as a key enabler, but one requiring a balance between time, cost, and performance accuracy. Over-investing in high-fidelity models can delay projects, while insufficient accuracy hinders progress. AWS addresses this through curated tools, partner solutions, and guidance to accelerate hardware-software co-development from initial models to real ECUs.

A standout example is the “virtual engine experience,” a cloud-based portal providing unified access to development tools. Users log in with credentials tied to Git repositories, accessing a consistent environment with pre-installed, RISC-V-supported tools from partners. This eliminates “it works on my machine” issues, speeds onboarding (from weeks to one day), and ensures version uniformity across teams, suppliers, and customers.

Dahan showcased partnerships, highlighting a recent two-hour workshop with ChipInvent demonstrating cloud-based EDA tools for rapid RISC-V design creation, something impractical with traditional setups.

Delving deeper into virtualization levels (referencing Synopsys slides), Dahan explained the spectrum from abstract models (fast but low accuracy) to real hardware (accurate but hard to scale). Engineers prefer the right side for confidence, but cloud shifts this leftward without sacrificing too much fidelity. Notably, 90% of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing can shift to Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), avoiding procurement delays, power/cooling needs, and maintenance of physical farms.

For RISC-V, where native execution isn’t directly available like on ARM Graviton instances, AWS leverages FPGA acceleration. EC2 F1/F2 instances (with AMD Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGAs) provide scalable access to FPGA-based prototypes, marrying desktop board benefits with cloud sharing.

Developers use pre-packaged tools like Vitis and OpenCL, integrate custom IP, and generate Amazon FPGA Images (AFIs) snapshottable, shareable, and marketplace-listable. IP remains protected, enabling monetization (free, paid, or BYOL). Smaller RISC-V IP providers gain broader reach without field engineers troubleshooting physical boards. A workshop used an RV35I core this way for quick starts.

For remaining real-hardware needs, AWS Outposts bring data-center servers on-premises, connectable to custom boards (e.g., Infinitrial or user-specific for IO testing). Secure remote access allows suppliers/customers to debug without travel, scaling to multiple boards.

Hybrid setups connect on-prem HIL farms to cloud via Direct Connect for low-latency, with EKS Hybrid Nodes orchestrating workloads across emulation, FPGA, and physical hardware under one control plane.

Dahan concluded that AWS reconciles embedded and cloud paradigms, letting developers focus on IP while managed services handle infrastructure. Calls to action included workshops for FPGA development, Marketplace listing guidance, and EDA scaling solutions. AWS hosts meetups in Santa Clara for hands-on tinkering and demos.

Bottom line: This talk underscores AWS’s commitment to RISC-V, making high-fidelity, collaborative development accessible and scalable—transform local prototypes into globally shareable assets.