Author- Rich Wawrzyniak
Principal Analyst at The SHD Group
As we start 2024, The SHD Group has released a comprehensive market analysis report titled “RISC-V Market Analysis Report; Application Forecasts in a Heterogeneous World 2024.” This report offers a deep dive into the evolving landscape of the RISC-V market, providing insight into the current RISC-V adoption by System-on-Chip (SoC) designers. The SHD Group is releasing two report versions to reach the diverse RISC-V audience and educate the entire market. The SHD Group has included an ecosystem guide, which is included in both reports:
- A complimentary abridged version of the report containing 80 pages, 16 tables, and 33 figures is available to anyone for download. The abridged version will provide an overview of the RISC-V market and insight into the overarching trends.
- A full version of the report, containing 225 pages, 107 tables, and 89 figures, is available for purchase. The full version is for anyone requiring a deep dive into the granular data and growth projections for RISC-V by devise type, global applications, design starts, Intellectual Properties (IP) revenues, and device revenue by geographic regions. For more information about purchasing the report, please contact Michele Kinman at m.kinman@theshdgroup.com
- Both report versions include the RISC-V Ecosystem Directory at no extra cost. Please submit your details to feature your company’s profile in this directory. Act now to ensure your company is included in the updated ecosystem guide.
The report is structured to effectively highlight the trends propelling the growth and increasing popularity of the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) in the current market. Ultimately, this surge in popularity can be attributed to a significant driving factor – the expanded choice it offers.
What is in the Full Report
The report is entitled Application Forecasts in a Heterogeneous World 2024 to reflect the evolution of the SoC market. Previously, SoCs primarily used CPU cores from a single vendor. Today, multi-core SoCs often feature a mix of different CPU cores at varying performance levels and are often provided by different vendors on a single chip. This includes the RISC-V ISA, which is now part of the diverse range of CPU ISAs available in the market.
The SHD Group segmented the full report into five main parts:
- Analysis of 54 end applications where is being used, profiling ten different SoC products for revenues and units
- An analysis of the IP market for total CPU IP and then for RISC-V CPU IP
- Taking these applications and segmenting them for where RISC-V cores will be tasked with performing different functions: deeply embedded Finite State Machines, MCU, Co-processor, and Host Processor
- RISC-V SoC revenues by global regions.
- Finally, the design starts for SoCs using RISC-V CPUs by process geometry: 40nm – 2nm.
Top of Form
SoC designers and architects now have more choices regarding the CPU core and ISA for designs. As the RISC-V ecosystem and ISA have matured, designers are confident they can find the right building blocks for their silicon solution. This rising level of confidence, coupled with the ability to configure and customize the ISA extensions, is a definite driver in the rise of RISC-V in the market.
The ability to configure and customize the RISC-V ISA extensions plays directly into the market trend of creating domain-specific silicon solutions tailored towards specific end applications to better fit the solution to the market requirements they are designed to meet. This is powerful, and designers everywhere have taken notice of this attribute of the RISC-V ISA. Inevitably, it allows companies that design with the RISC-V ISA to create silicon solutions better suited to the end applications and become more valuable to their customers.
Report Methodology
The SHD Group interviewed over 30 companies, including industry leaders, IP vendors, CPU designers, system developers, EDA companies, software companies, and users of SoCs. The goal was to collect information on the RISC-V market’s current state and future projections.
As the author of this report, I, along with The SHD Group, extend our gratitude to the RISC-V International Association for their support and encouragement.
Full Report Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Executive Summary
Specification vs. implementation
Introduction
I. Architectural Definition for an SoC
II. Silicon Design Trends: Rising Design Complexity
III. RISC-V Market Drivers and Challenges
Effects of AI on RISC-V SoC Designs
IV. SoC Market Analysis
Assumptions for RISC-V Market Analysis
Total RISC-V SoC Market Metrics and Analysis by Application and Device Type
VI. RISC-V SoCs by Functionality 2021 – 2030
Analysis of RISC-V Usage by Functionality
VII. RISC-V SoC Design Starts
VIII. RISC-V Regional Forecasts
IX. RISC-V CPU IP Market Analysis
Comparison of RISC-V IP vs. Total CPU IP Revenues
X. RISC-V Ecosystem
XI. SWOT Analysis of RISC-V Ecosystem and Landscape
What is the True Value of the RISC-V ISA and its Ecosystem?
XII. Ecosystem Directory
XIII. Total SoC Market Metrics and Analysis
XIV. Total IP Market Analysis
CPU IP Market Analysis
CPU IP Market Analysis by Architecture
XIV. Conclusions and Recommendations
XVI. Acknowledgements
XVII. Report Methodology
XVIII. Appendix