GoKawiilDeveloper builds minimal RISC-V emulator in C++ to bootstrap Linux kernel
A developer documented the process of bringing up the Linux kernel on a new platform by writing a lightweight emulator for a RISC-V CPU rather than using real hardware. The emulator, built in roughly 2000 lines of C++ and implementing the RV32IMA instruction set, provides just enough hardware simulation—MMU support, RAM, an SBI interface, a system timer, and a WD8250-based UART—for Linux to boot. The full source is published on GitHub under WerWolv/riscv-emulator.