Question: for someone without assembly background, what would be the best resource to get started with RISC-V?
When I was working on this full-time, there wasn't a good way to learn in a comprehensive manner. Some instructions were incredibly unclear even looking at the specification.
If you were familiar with other RISC assembly, I think making a simple project using RARS (or other simulator) would be a pretty good way to get a baseline understanding.
Compiling C applications to risc-v assembly can also be helpful.
If the parent also isn't familiar with how CPUs and caching works and wants to learn that along with RISC-V assembly it is probably a good bet.
Assembly tutorials: https://github.com/MattPD/cpplinks/blob/master/assembly.risc...
This list has three books, including the one recommended elsewhere in this thread. There is a much cheaper introduction as well.
I'll take a look at the RISC-V specification. Thanks!
Having spent a fair amount of time reading and referring to the specification, I definitely would not recommend it for someone who isn't familiar with assembly.
It is free though, so giving it a shot might be worth it.
I'm old - and binary is how one would bootstrap a new computer, and assembly was an hll.