The RISC-V Embedded Platform for MCU-Class Systems
EM-Altair Platform and its Reference Architectures are the foundation for deeply embedded microcontroller-class RISC-V systems. Based on the EM-Altair Platform specification, the EM-Altair Reference Architectures combine well defined hardware baselines and production-ready integrated software stacks, enabling software to be built once and deployed across compliant implementations from multiple silicon vendors.
What EM-Altair Platform Is: Profile, Hardware, Software Stack
The EM-Altair Platform specification is built on the EM-Altair Profile. The Profile defines the ISA, extensions, and privilege modes (the instruction-level contract). The Platform is what is needed beyond that contract to make binaries and tooling portable across vendors: the hardware requirements, hardware-software interfaces, and system-level rules every compliant MCU must meet. The EM-Altair Reference Architectures then implement the Platform specification as complete, validated stacks.
EM-Altair Profile
The ISA foundation. RV32IM baseline, mandatory extensions for interrupts, atomics, CSR behavior, and memory ordering, plus clearly bounded optional extensions.
Learn more about the EM-Altair Profile →Platform Specification
A common set of capabilities, baseline performance targets, and compliance requirements shared across implementations, including PMP-based isolation with Machine and User modes, and a high-performance, bounded interrupt architecture built for hard real-time response.
Reference Architectures
Complete, validated implementations of the Platform specification. Each Reference Architecture integrates a compliant core, an RTOS, the QNT Base Layer, compiler and debug tools, and a demo application, so teams can design in on a proven stack. EM-Altair Reference Architectures cover industrial, automotive safety, and open-source stacks.
Benefits
True binary portability
Build once, deploy across every EM-Altair-compliant core, regardless of which vendor implemented it.
Full-featured and open
Fixed-point DSP support and a feature set built for mainstream MCU workloads, with no proprietary lock-in.
Deterministic by design
Bounded interrupt latency and predictable memory access rules, so real-time behavior is a platform guarantee, not an implementation detail.
Security and safety ready
PMP-based isolation between trusted and untrusted code, with architecture and platform services aligned to ASIL-B-equivalent safety expectations.
Lower ecosystem fragmentation
One consistent embedded RISC-V foundation across silicon vendors, RTOS providers, and toolchains.
Lower long-term maintenance cost
A stable platform contract means software written today keeps working as new compliant silicon reaches the market.
Use Cases
IoT Devices
Sensor hubs, smart nodes, and connected appliances that need low power and a predictable, portable software base.
IoT market →Industrial Automation
Control loops, robotics controllers, and factory edge systems where deterministic timing is not optional.
IoT market →Automotive Embedded Systems
Body electronics, zonal controllers, infotainment controllers, and EV energy subsystems, where safety alignment and long product lifecycles matter.
Automotive market →Consumer Devices & Wearables
Compact, energy-optimized processors for mass-market, cost-sensitive designs.
Consumer market →Across all four, the goal is the same: cost-optimized, real-time performance for mass deployment, on a foundation that does not lock products into one vendor’s roadmap.
Why RISC-V, Why Now
Demand for an open alternative to proprietary MCU architectures keeps growing, and embedded RISC-V is ready to meet it. What the MCU class needs now is consistency: common memory and interrupt models, a safety and security posture fit for industrial and automotive programs and aligned toolchain and RTOS support.
EM-Altair Platform addresses this directly, by specifying not just an ISA profile, but the hardware requirements, hardware-software interfaces, and compliance rules around it, with Reference Architectures that put the specification into practice. Ecosystem partners can adopt a shared foundation while still competing on microarchitecture, pipeline design, or performance tuning.
Validation and Benchmarking
EM-Altair Platform compliance is supported by QNTAF, the Quintauris test automation framework, delivered as part of Quintauris Professional Services. QNTAF provides multi-target execution across cloud, simulator, and FPGA environments, benchmarking and validation suites, automated artifact generation for certification evidence, and CI/CD integration for reproducible regression testing. This means platform compliance is not a paper claim; it is something an implementation can be tested and validated against, with traceable results.
Multi-target execution
Cloud, simulator, and FPGA environments.
Benchmarking and validation
Suites to test implementations against the specification.
Certification evidence
Automated artifact generation with traceable results.
CI/CD integration
Reproducible regression testing.
FAQ
What is EM-Altair Platform?
EM-Altair Platform is a specification for microcontroller-class RISC-V systems. It defines the hardware-software interfaces and compliance requirements that build on top of the EM-Altair Profile, enabling binary-compatible, real-time embedded systems across multiple silicon vendors.
How is EM-Altair Platform different from the EM-Altair Profile?
The Profile defines the ISA, extensions, and privilege modes (the instruction-level contract for compliant processors). The Platform specification is broader: it builds on the Profile with the hardware requirements, hardware-software interfaces, and system-level rules a compliant MCU must meet. The Reference Architectures are separate: complete, validated stacks that implement the Platform specification. The Platform is built on the Profile; they are complementary, not interchangeable.
Who is EM-Altair Platform for?
SoC vendors, RTOS developers, and OEMs building MCU-class embedded systems for IoT, industrial automation, automotive, or consumer and wearable devices, who need deterministic real-time performance and cross-vendor software portability.
Is EM-Altair Platform open or proprietary?
EM-Altair Platform builds on the open RISC-V ISA and standard. It defines vendor-neutral hardware requirements and hardware-software interfaces that any compliant IP or tooling vendor can support, developed by Quintauris in cooperation with industry partners.
How is compliance validated?
Through QNTAF, the Quintauris test automation framework, available via Quintauris Professional Services, which provides benchmarking, validation suites, and traceable certification artifacts across cloud, simulator, and FPGA targets.
Get started with EM-Altair
EM-Altair Platform is available to engineering teams evaluating a standardized, real-time embedded RISC-V foundation. Request access to the Platform specification, the Reference Architectures, and the validation framework.