All Hype Or Real Hope For The Processor Market?

Jothy Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of Dover Microsystems, a member of the RISC-V Foundation, contributes to All About Circuits discussing the impact of RISC-V and open source architecture on the semiconductor market.
Created with the aim to revolutionize and democratize processor design for everything from mobile phones to industrial device controllers, RISC-V is changing the world of processor design. But what makes RISC-V so special? And is it all hype or meaningful hope for the market? Two words: open source.
RISC-V’s open standard ISA has grown to be highly impactful in the processor design space due to its open specification. Opening up the ISA means it can be explored and further developed by industry experts, commercial innovators and top academics.
But the open source nature of RISC-V allows for something else incredibly important that has been lacking in the processor market for a long time: diversity. Rather than choosing an off-the-shelf processor, RISC-V enables a high degree of customization, previously unavailable to product designers. The ability to add extensions to the base ISA makes it an attractive option for applications requiring special configurations.
 
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