Open Electronics Article: RISC-V, The Era Of Open Source CPU Has Begun

The project of an “open hardware” CPU, entertained only in the academic work until now, is now ripe for commercial purposes. At FOSDEM in Brussels (international conference on open-source projects), which took place in February 2018, we have attended the presentation of the first board equipped with Linux-ready, 64-bit RISC-V CPU. The mission of RISC-V is to “democratize” the access to silicone, in order to give startups, universities and even single individuals the possibility to design and implement their own CPU on discrete logic or FPGA, without having to pay the excess costs due to royalties and with the total documentary visibility of the project.
Not only that, but the RISC-V Foundation has been thought out to be “democratic”: any evolution must be subject to discussion and approved after a consensus and obtained based on purely technical reasons, not on patent wars, nor the necessity to force obsolescence for commercial purposes. Everyone can subscribe to the RISC-V Foundation: both private individuals and companies.
 
To read more, please visit: https://www.open-electronics.org/risc-v-the-era-of-open-source-cpu-has-begun/.