ROI with New Open-Source RISC-V

How Open-Source RISC-V Maximizes the ROI of a New Application

By Adam Kimmel for Mouser Electronics

Recognizing the need for an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA), current SiFive C-suite members Yunsup Lee and Andrew Waterman designed the reduced instruction set computer (RISC-V) ISA and its first microprocessors in 2010. Open-source is a critical characteristic to ensure programmers can speak the same “language,” standardizing the communication between hardware and software. At the risk of being redundant here, this alignment moves the industry forward to handing innovators the communication pathway to focus on moving the industry forward.

Lee and Waterman stated in a 10th-anniversary video that the ISA’s open-source nature would propel emerging applications 5G, IoT, and AI. Calista Redmond, CEO at RISC-V International, added security and the cloud to the list of best-suited applications to RISC-V. These experts state that these applications demonstrate their consistent demand for substantial computation power coupled with energy efficiency constraints. The balance between these two factors lends itself to standardization, making them ideal candidates for RISC-V.

Ten years ago, the creators wanted to proliferate RISC-V throughout the industry with its inception at a Berkley Lab. In 2015, they formed RISC-V International in a separate incorporation. Seeking to onboard 25 companies in the first year, RISC-V International has enjoyed exponential growth in the five years of its existence. The consortium grew more than 63% in 2020 to a membership exceeding 750 companies. Three primary regions have equally split adoption of RISC-V: NA, EU, and APAC.

Global community membership’s breadth has led to the adoption and commercialization of new and established embedded and industrial architectures. Legacy architectures are open to trying RISC-V but still hedge against their existing technology due to the perceived risk of changing over.

Vision

“RISC-V was conceived from the beginning as an open standard to overcome decades old proprietary approaches in microprocessor design. RISC-V has broken down technical barriers as a simple, modular architecture to enable the broadest innovations in history as well as taken out development costs, business risks, and licensing restrictions to enable global adoption, across skyrocketing industry opportunities,” said Redmond.

The open-source model provides choice and freedom, fueling the innovative spirit infused in the community while removing proprietary and commercial barriers to adoption. With each new member onboarded, RISC-V International expands its intention to move the organization forward from curiosity to adoption. It challenges non-members to shift their thinking from “Why RISC-V?” to “Why not RISC-V?”

Redmond adds, “Open-source is only successful when commercialization is happening on top of and around it. Massive adoption of RISC-V makes our members successful.” Indeed, this is the mission of standardization.

RISC-V Community Membership

The shared mission and importance of crucial Industry 4.0 solutions create a strong community centered around the belief that cooperation between industry partners will advance humankind sooner. Members observe the state-of-the-art in the semiconductor industry and engage in inter-company workgroups in their expertise areas. Coupled with joint standards development, these workstreams are a tangible example of how the community makes the entire industry part of the technology development team.

Also, close collaboration with industry partners promotes positive job satisfaction, security, and networking. These factors create an entrepreneurial climate based on the maturity curve of technology.

Business Case and ROI

While its members’ passion and vision are apparent, the commercial rationale must make sense for the initiative to be truly successful. To that point, open-source circumvents the usual commercial hurdle for independent companies needing high volumes to deliver a palatable ROI. Companies are not individually responsible for creating volume scale to improve costs; the community spreads the development costs across its members. This commercial advantage provides a low barrier to entry for new members, encourages lots of engagement, and enables low investment.

With an attractive entry point for new members, future development gets easier as new members join the mission. Furthermore, because of the transparent nature of new advancements, one company solves a problem for all community members, increasing speed, efficiency, and higher investment in white space frontier initiatives.

Applications and Markets

Part of the appeal of RISC-V’s mission is that the technology is not limited to any industry or domain. The ISA is the smallest building block, and engineers can implement it on small or large systems. Community members have applied RISC-V to applications such as:

• HPC
• PC
• Wearables
• Embedded
• Automotive
• Space

The span of these application areas speaks to the breadth of possible usage for open-source ISA. With many commercial barriers removed, future applications will be limited only by how quickly engineers can apply and integrate the technology.

Future of Technology

The continued rapid expansion of the RISC-V International community demonstrates the high ceiling the initiative has. Other open-source groups, such as Zephyr, are drawing RISC-V into the HPC community. Mark Himelstein, CTO of RISC-V International, shared that RISC-V is “likely the largest open-sourced project in history.”

Though a massive undertaking, the momentum behind the compelling business case and high ROI lead to the community’s exponential expansion. For RISC-V, the sky is truly the limit.