Octlot: Enabling Vector Extension on Berkely Out-of-Order Machine (BOOM)
We present Octlot , an open-source project adding vector extension support to Berkeley's BOOM out-of-order RISC-V core. In our latest v2 ("Bobcat") release, we adopted the Open Vector Interface from SemiDynamics, allowing the vector unit to be decoupled from the core and significantly boosting unit-stride memory performance through coalescing. Octlot's development was accelerated by open-source tools such as Tenstorrent's Whisper simulator and Riescue test suite, showcasing how collaboration in the RISC-V ecosystem drives rapid hardware innovation. We invite the community to collaborate and help shape the future of open-source vector computing!