By: The RISC-V Summit China Team
The 4th RISC-V Summit China 2024 was successfully held in Hangzhou from August 21st to 23rd. This summit brought together RISC-V International, over a hundred key enterprises and research institutions, and approximately 3,000 in-person participants. From August 19th to 25th, more than 20 co-events were organized, allowing global developers to discuss the latest advancements and future directions of RISC-V.
Nuclei System Technology Booth
Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director of the RISC-V Strategic Committee, Guangnan Ni; CEO of the RISC-V International, Calista Redmond; Co-founder and Chief Architect of SiFive, Krste Asanović; Board Chair of the RISC-V International, Lu Dai; Rotating President of the REVI Committee and CEO of ZHIHE Computing, Jianyi Meng; Professor at Peking University and Chief Scientist of the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip, Tao Xie, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yungang Bao, attended this summit.
In his speech, Academician Guangnan Ni emphasized that open source has become a mainstream trend in building new technology ecosystems. The software and hardware ecosystem based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set is rapidly expanding and has already extended to areas such as personal PCs, servers, and artificial intelligence. He called for increased support for open-source infrastructure, the promotion of open-source talent development, and the creation of an open and mutually beneficial technology ecosystem.
Academician Guangnan Ni’s On-Site Speech
Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International, emphasized the vast growth potential of RISC-V and highlighted China’s significant role in its development. She called for continued investment in universities to incubate new ideas and encouraged everyone to leverage collaborative projects to jointly promote RISC-V’s growth in the global market, thereby creating more opportunities for the entire industry.
Calista Redmond — “RISC-V opportunity, innovation, and collaboration igniting adoption”
Krste Asanović, Co-founder and Chief Architect of SiFive, stated in his speech that the flexibility and scalability of RISC-V enable its rapid development in the fields of application processors and AI acceleration. The RISC-V community has introduced RISC-V Profiles to ensure unified standards for hardware and software, addressing the issue of software fragmentation. Krste Asanović also mentioned that there will be ongoing efforts to promote the widespread adoption of RISC-V globally through standardization and community collaboration.
Krste Asanović — “RISC-V is Growing Rapidly—Everywhere”
Jianyi Meng , Chairman of the RISC-V Summit China and Rotating President of the REVI Committee, emphasized that the key to the next phase of RISC-V’s development is to create market-competitive benchmark products. He called for more software ecosystem partners to increase their investment, thereby driving the large-scale commercialization of RISC-V.
Jianyi Meng — “Accelerating the Creation of Benchmark Products, Advancing the RISC-V Ecosystem”
Additionally, keynotes were delivered at the main conference by the XuanTie team from DAMO Academy; Ning He, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of ESWIN; Yong Yang, Technical Director at Qinheng Microelectronics; Peng Gao, Senior Vice President of SOPHGO; Zhenbo Hu, Founder of Nuclei, and Yungang Bao, Chief Scientist of the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip.
The XuanTie team highlighted in their presentation that RISC-V has already seen widespread use in embedded systems and is now advancing into high-performance domains. They shared details on the energy-efficient R908 processor designed for real-time applications, the enhanced C920 with improved AI acceleration and scalability, and the upcoming high-performance C930 processor for cloud computing, set to be released by the end of the year. These products are expected to propel RISC-V to new frontiers in high-performance applications.
In his speech, Ning He stated that RISC-V, with its simplicity, openness, flexibility, extensibility, and high energy efficiency, is becoming the native architecture of the AI era. He emphasized that the integration of RISC-V and AI is both a trend and an inevitability, and he called on partners across the industry chain to collaborate in building a robust RDI ecosystem.
Yong Yang systematically summarized the innovative achievements and practical experiences of the QingKe RISC-V series mass-produced chips, focusing on the full-stack development model, the matrix technology system of kernel + interface PHY, product advantages, and ecosystem development.
In his speech, Peng Gao explored the significant opportunities of RISC-V and delivered a forward-looking statement on the development plans and prospects of RISC-V in the new era where computing power is becoming the core driver of productivity.
Zhenbo Hu introduced the key commercial elements crucial to the development of the RISC-V ecosystem. By integrating the current state of RISC-V technology and its ecosystem, he explored the industrial value of RISC-V CPU IP and discussed its development trends, along with the future path of collaborative innovation models.
Yungang Bao remarked that RISC-V fosters technological innovation, with its open instruction set, open-source design implementations, open-source tools, and open processes transforming chip design methodologies. In the future, the proportion of open-source IP in chips will steadily increase, and the evolution of chip design methods will drive a new wave of business model innovation, such as the Linux + RedHat model, with the potential to nurture new leading enterprises.
Besides the captivating speeches and presentations in the main venue, the diverse range of co-events also emerged as a significant highlight at the RISC-V Summit China. Various technical forums and developer meetups enhanced the conference experience and offered attendees valuable opportunities to engage in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge technologies and their practical applications.
Summit Forum on”Intelligent Computing Era, New Paths for RISC-V Innovative Development”
On the afternoon of August 21, a successful summit forum titled “Intelligent Computing Era, New Paths for RISC-V Innovative Development” was organized by XuanTie team from DAMO Academy, and co-organized by the College of Integrated Circuits Zhejiang University, Fudan University State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, ZHIHE Computing. Experts and scholars engaged in discussions about the opportunities, challenges, and development trends facing RISC-V in the AI era, exploring innovative applications of RISC-V for AI and other high-performance computing scenarios in the era of Intelligent Computing.
Xiaolang Yan, Professor at Zhejiang University and Chairman of ZHIHE Computing, stated in his address at the summit forum, “We are currently in an era of transformation in computing architecture. The RISC-V architecture, with its openness, flexibility, efficiency, and native support for AI computing, is becoming a significant force driving innovation in computing technology.”
RISC-V Intelligent Computing Summit
On the afternoon of August 22, SOPHGO successfully hosted the inaugural RISC-V Intelligent Computing Summit, themed “Openness-Leadership.” During the event, the Dongshan No.1 PLUS Cluster was unveiled, showcasing a significant enhancement in computing power and storage capacity. Peng Gao, Senior Vice President of SOPHGO, emphasized the importance of the open-source ecosystem and discussed the future of autonomous and controllable processor technologies. The summit also witnessed the launch of several new products based on the SG200X processor, including a lightweight NAS, open-source hardware, and smart devices, showcasing the thriving vitality of the RISC-V ecosystem.
Peng Gao — “The Road to RISC-V Innovation: Cutting-Edge Developments in Open-Source Technology”
On the afternoon of August 22, the XuanTie team from DAMO Academy held a special event titled “XuanTie Technology Open Day”, inviting a team of XuanTie technology experts. The team shared the latest technological trends in the RISC-V community, discussed the advantages of XuanTie’s full-stack hardware and software technology, and provided practical case studies. They introduced and outlined XuanTie’s vision for development in areas such as AI applications and confidential computing, aiming to explore the future landscape of the RISC-V industry collaboratively.
XiangShan Developer Conference
The XiangShan Developer Conference (including tutorial), a concurrent event of the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip (BOSC) was successfully held on the afternoon of August 22nd. Yungang Bao, the initiator of XiangShan Open-Source Community has reviewed XiangShan’s development history and introduced the community’s positioning and philosophy. The conference also invited industry experts from several companies, such as SpacemiT, Intel China Research Institute, China Telecom and INNOSILICON Technology to share their practical experiences and thoughts on the future regarding of the XiangShan Open-Source processor and its related technologies.
Group Photo of XiangShan Developers
During this conference, many XiangShan enthusiasts came together to witness the unveiling of the XiangShan NanHu Laptop, the world’s first equipped with the XiangShan NanHu processor. The XiangShan NanHu Laptop is powered by the XiangShan NanHu processor, clocked at up to 2.5GHZ, and equipped with 8GB of DDR5 memory. The display features a 14-inch HD LCD screen while graphics are handled by an integated AMD RX550 discrete GPU, supporting dual-screen extended display. For connectivity, this laptop offers two high-speed USB 3,0 ports, two 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, and a touchpad that supports nine different gesture operations.
Wei Wu from the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS), showing the first XiangShan NanHu Laptop equipped with the XiangShan NanHu Processor.
StarFive Full Scenario RISC-V Solutions Workshop
On the morning of August 22nd, StarFive successfully hosted the StarFive Full Scenario RISC-V Solutions Workshop. In this conference, StarFive showcased over 20 RISC-V products, announced more than 10 RISC-V solutions, and demonstrated cutting-edge applications of RISC-V in fields such as industry, power, energy and education. StarFive provided a comprehensive overview of the progress of StarFive’s RISC-V ecosystem, products, and solutions.
On the afternoon of August 22nd, Synopsys technology sucessfully held the Synopsys RISC-V Tech Day. In order to enhance the innovation capabilities of RISC-V developers and optimize development process, the event invited numerous technical experts from Synopsys Technology and ZHIHE Computing, who engaged in face-to-face interactions with developers, sharing practical development techniques and strategies based on daily experiences and successful projects.
openEuler RISC-V SIG Developer Day and Hangzhou Meetup
On the afternoon of August 23rd, thw openEuler RISC-V SIG Developer Day and Hangzhou Meetup, co-hosted by the openEuler community and the Insitute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) took place. This event covered software and hardware companies such as XiangShan from Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip (BOSC), XuanTie team from DAMO Academy, SOPHGO Technology, SpacemiT, RedHat, and Kubuds Technology, to discuss how to speed up the development of RISC-V.
As the RISC-V Summit China 2024 successfully concluded, we not only witnessed the rapid growth of this open-source instruction set architecture but also observed China’s innovations and breakthroughs in the field. The enthusiastic participation of thousands of in-person attendees, along with numerous themed presentations and in-depth discussions at concurrent events, showcased the diverse development of RISC-V. We eagerly anticipate even more exciting exchanges and insights at next year’s RISC-V Summit China.