Relevancy of RISC-V ISA?

[whm1974]

Like all ISA. What makes it different from other ISA? Can you list the features that make it stand out from the crowd?

And no, extensions are not enough to sustain that claim; many previous ISA allowed that (including ARM twenty years ago, and MIPS, and ARC, etc.). So what exactly makes you believe RISC-V marketing?

Who said that I believe anything about RISC-V marketing? I just see some promise with the ISA being Free and Open.

 

[teejee]

Like all ISA. What makes it different from other ISA? Can you list the features that make it stand out from the crowd?

You didn't ask me but I'm happy to answer
RISC-V has momentum, enthusiasm and investors in a way you don't see among other ISA's.

In fact, even Intel has invested in RISC-V! (just google for details).

 

[Thala]

Who said that I believe anything about RISC-V marketing? I just see some promise with the ISA being Free and Open.

The ISA itself being free is not a big feature. Compared to Software that means, that Interfaces are free but not necessarily the implementation. And what is a big feature in free software, that anyone can contribute to a single implementation - like the Linux Kernel, this is not the case here.

In fact, even Intel has invested in RISC-V! (just google for details).

Intel has invested into SiFive, a company who offers proprietary implementations of the RISC-V ISA. Thats quite a bit different than investing into the community.

 

[whm1974]

The ISA itself being free is not a big feature. Compared to Software that means, that Interfaces are free but not necessarily the implementation. And what is a big feature in free software, that anyone can contribute to a single implementation - like the Linux Kernel, this is not the case here.



Intel has invested into SiFive, a company who offers proprietary implementations of the RISC-V ISA. Thats quite a bit different than investing into the community.

Yes but The RISC-V foundation does have the Rocket and BOOM Open Source implementations.
https://riscv.org/risc-v-cores/

 

[Thala]

Yes but The RISC-V foundation does have the Rocket and BOOM Open Source implementations.
https://riscv.org/risc-v-cores/

see below:

Note that none of these cores/SoCs have passed the in-development RISC-V compliance suite.

Talk about fragmentation. On top of this the so called "compliance suite" only test a small subset of common features. With such fragmentation you'll never build an ecosystem.

 

[whm1974]

Yet.

 

[teejee]

Intel has invested into SiFive, a company who offers proprietary implementations of the RISC-V ISA. Thats quite a bit different than investing into the community.

I know. And SiFive is a very core part of the RISC-V world, so nothing wrong with my statement.

Regardless, investing in a commercial RISC-V company is something you only do if you believe in it. So Intel believes in RISC-V.

 

[Nothingness]

Regardless, investing in a commercial RISC-V company is something you only do if you believe in it. So Intel believes in RISC-V.

Just to clarify: it's Intel Capital that invested in SiFive. They have investments in almost 300 companies. Of course I don't mean to imply that Intel Corp doesn't have an interest in SiFive.

Off topic: it's not a guaranty of success, I worked in an EDA company that was backed by them and that didn't prevent complete failure

 

[Nothingness]

You didn't ask me but I'm happy to answer
RISC-V has momentum, enthusiasm and investors in a way you don't see among other ISA's.

Try to find the list of companies that have ARM architecture licenses (I'm not talking about IP licensees), that will dwarf RISC-V investment potential.

As far as momentum and enthusiasm goes, I already agreed about that But I think RISC-V at the moment is just a research toy that needs to mature. If my work didn't strictly forbid to look at competition I would certainly play with it.

 

[moinmoin]

Thanks for all the replies and discussion. I guess current relevancy is still dubious, but the overall context of the development sure is promising.

It also looks like Arm took their site about RISC-V offline, it's still accessible through archive.org for those who are interested: https://web.archive.org/web/20180708231736/https://riscv-basics.com/