Open-source processor cores are beginning to show up in heterogeneous SoCs and packages.
RISC-V cores are beginning to show up in heterogeneous SoCs and packages, shifting from one-off standalone designs toward mainstream applications where they are used for everything from accelerators and extra processing cores to security applications.
These changes are subtle but significant. They point to a growing acceptance that chips or chiplets based on an open-source instruction set architecture can be combined with silicon-proven cores from Arm, Synopsys (ARC), and Cadence (Tensilica Xtensa), and others, to create a relatively inexpensive and flexible customization option. And while RISC-V has yet to make a dent in standalone applications, companies such as Ventana Micro Systems are testing the waters for high-performance computing chiplets based on RISC-V for use in data centers.