The RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) is increasingly generating interest and momentum within the embedded community. The free and open RISC ISA is driven by open collaboration with the goal to enable freedom of design across many industries and applications. Renesas is at the forefront of such initiatives and the release of the ASSP EASY for motor control marks an industry-first milestone in the productization of an MCU-class solution.
The RISC-V ecosystem is still in its emerging stage and especially for the tiniest devices like microcontrollers, certainly not yet comparable with the large software offerings available for existing architectures that have developed and grown over many decades. Currently, state-of-the-art professional tools for application development and debugging are available to support such new designs. Software development might be the remaining challenge for many, though.