Research underscores current RISC-V architecture momentum, emphasizing impressive growth in consumer, enterprise and communication markets
RISC-V is leading the open era of computing across consumer and enterprise markets. In Semico Research’s latest report focusing particularly on artificial intelligence (AI) implementations, “Analyzing the RISC-V CPU Market for SIP, SoCs, AI and Design Starts” (CC330-21), the firm predicts that current investment in the RISC-V architecture will continue growing as the market increasingly witnesses more open source designers delivering on the power of open source design. High level insights showcase significant market revenue growth of 9.0% for total Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) and 9.8% in the CPU SIP market. At the same time, RISC-V CPU SIP will experience a 34.9% CAGR through 2027.
During the past year, many organizations have deepened their RISC-V strategy to leverage the power of the open RISC-V ISA to create custom core and SoC designs. In fact, Semico Research predicts that there will be 25 billion RISC-V-based AI SoCs on the market by 2027 with an expected revenue of $291 billion that same year. The inclusion of AI into silicon solutions for all types of applications is a strong driver in the semiconductor market today and RISC-V’s growth is expected across many key industries. This includes a 57.2% expected growth in low-end smartphones, 112.3% in 5G infrastructure, 68.9% in data centers, 78% in PC and game consoles, 313.8% in cellular infrastructure, and 85.2% in consumer IoT within the next five years. The growth rates for these different market segments and end applications represent a combination of RISC-V-empowered AI-SoCs acting as accelerators and as main CPUs, and/or other parts with the systems that require CPU functionality.
The RISC-V architecture is making a strong impression on SoC designers and architects. A significant portion of designs, revenues and unit shipments will come from AI SoCs that use the RISC-V architecture in the next few years.
The report also reviews the Silicon IP market indicating rapid growth as well. Semico Research forecasts that RISC-V’s SIP market revenues is forecast to grow about 36.9% 2021-over-2022, noting this movement is largely the result of many companies using RISC-V as an alternative to other, more traditional CPU SIP types.
The RISC-V community has made milestones in developing extensions and specifications to address the latest computing requirements to help accelerate the adoption of RISC-V across a variety of market segments. In December 2021, RISC-V announced 15 new extensions and ratified the Vector, Scalar Cryptography, and Hypervisor specifications which will help unlock new opportunities for developers creating RISC-V applications for AI and ML, IoT and more.
Semico Research’s “Analyzing the RISC-V CPU Market for SIP, SoCs, AI and Design Starts” report discusses how the RISC-V ecosystem will continue to expand adoption and design development in the SoC markets for consumer, enterprise and communication applications. You can purchase and download Semico Research’s full report here to read further into its analysis and forecasts for RISC-V.