T-Head, the chip unit of Alibaba Group Holding, has joined a global initiative to develop a software ecosystem and accelerate commercialisation for RISC-V, as the open-source chip design architecture is increasingly seen as a potential alternative for proprietary Arm and x86 architectures.
The RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) Project, hosted by Linux Foundation European, a non-profit organisation enabling innovation through open source, has brought together 13 global industry leaders as its founding members, according to a press release issued by the organisation earlier this week.
It aims to enable “commercial-ready software” for application processors using the RISC-V architecture for mobile phones, consumer electronics, data centres, and automotive.