5 firms that manufacture semiconductors for smartphones, vehicles and extra have introduced that they may kind an organization designed to advance the open supply RISC-V structure, in a transfer extensively seen as being designed to scale back their dependence on licensed expertise from Arm.
The businesses — Qualcomm, Robert Bosch, Infineon Applied sciences, NXP Semiconductors and Nordic Semiconductors — have but to call this three way partnership, however mentioned in an announcement issued Friday that the corporate will probably be registered in Germany, and that its focus will probably be on offering reference architectures and establishing business options. The preliminary focus, in line with the assertion, will probably be on the automotive business, however plans are in place to develop into cell and IoT use circumstances.
“The creation of a one-stop-shop ecosystem the place prospects can choose turnkey property will strengthen the adoption of RISC-V throughout many European industries,” mentioned NXP CTO Lars Reger, within the assertion.
RISC-V is an open supply instruction set structure for processors, initially created on the College of California at Berkeley. The concept was to create a totally open supply processor system, with clearly defined design selections, in distinction to proprietary designs. It’s designed to be versatile, for the widest doable vary of potential chip designs and purposes, and is obtainable royalty-free, which is a key consideration for firms used to licensing expertise from firms like Arm.
“At its core, RISC-V encourages innovation, permitting any firm to develop cutting-edge, custom-made {hardware} based mostly on an open-source instruction set,” the businesses’ joint assertion mentioned. “Additional adoption of the RISC-V expertise will promote much more variety within the electronics business — decreasing the boundaries to entry for smaller and emergent firms and enabling elevated scalability for established firms.”
Arm’s primacy in cell chips
Arm’s primacy on the planet of cell semiconductors hasn’t endeared it to a few of its prospects, and the corporate has been embroiled in a authorized battle with Qualcomm for roughly a yr over a licensing dispute. (Qualcomm has additionally invested in a startup referred to as SiFive, a chip designer trying to leverage RISC-V commercially.)
The creation of the as-yet-unnamed RISC-V enterprise is being extensively seen as an effort to create an alternative choice to doing enterprise virtually solely with Arm, doubtlessly utilizing open supply {hardware} designs to minimize prices. Furthermore, even Arm’s chief rivals within the silicon market have gotten concerned with RISC-V, with Intel contributing $1 billion to foundry companies supporting open supply chips in 2022.
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