On July 17, the 2025 RISC-V China Summit opened in Shanghai. During the conference, the Shanghai Open Computing Systems Research Institute (provisional) (hereinafter referred to as the Research Institute) was inaugurated, led by Fudan University and other institutions, with Professor Xie Tao, a top talent dual-appointed and a foreign academician of the European Academy, serving as the director.
As an important part of Shanghai’s RISC-V strategic layout, the Research Institute will primarily conduct research on open instruction sets, advanced computing architectures, parallel programming languages and compilers, operating systems, and software ecosystems, focusing on key application areas in artificial intelligence. It aims to promote the evolution of RISC-V-based computing architectures and the design of high-performance, highly reliable system software, developing the open computing systems industry ecosystem in Shanghai and across the country.
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Focusing on RISC-V,
Building an Advanced Open Computing Ecosystem
Currently, emerging computing technologies have brought new possibilities for the intelligent interconnection of all things through the integration of “human, machine, and object,” but they also pose new requirements for algorithms, computing models, programming environments, and software development, further increasing the difficulty of hardware and software R&D. RISC-V is a reduced instruction set architecture for all-scenario chip design, characterized by openness, simplicity, and flexibility, allowing any organization or individual to freely use, modify, and expand it without paying patent fees, which has garnered widespread attention and use in the global academic and industrial communities.
Shanghai is one of the earliest regions in China to support and promote RISC-V. It has initially formed a comprehensive industrial chain covering everything from chip design and manufacturing to applications, continuously promoting the development of RISC-V in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence computing power, smart terminals, and automotive electronics. In the era of artificial intelligence, enhancing the research and engineering level of advanced computing systems based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture as a common open foundation will help improve computing power scale, reduce computing power costs, and increase computing power efficiency, providing technical support for new scenarios such as the digital economy and the Internet of Everything.
The Research Institute will align with the development trends of advanced computing systems and the artificial intelligence industry in Shanghai, while also considering the specific requirements of Shanghai’s global science and technology innovation center construction, smart city development, and the orderly governance of Shanghai as a megacity, accelerating the deep application of advanced computing systems based on RISC-V in key areas of economic development, urban governance, and public services in Shanghai and across the country.
Led by Professor Xie Tao, the Research Institute will build on existing relevant teams at Fudan University and introduce advantageous talent teams from both domestic and international sources, focusing on advanced computing systems based on RISC-V and key application areas in artificial intelligence, forming a collaborative development pattern. The concurrently established university-level operational research institution (Advanced Computing Systems Research Institute) at Fudan University will provide institutional support for collaborative tackling of challenges and talent cultivation.
“Our R&D model is not just about developing on our own and pushing it to enterprises; we actively seek cooperation and work together to tackle challenges.” Xie Tao stated that in the form of a collaborative innovation entity combining industry, academia, research, and application, the Research Institute will actively expand deep cooperation with top domestic and international research institutions, leading enterprises, and industry alliances, building a new type of open-source research and innovation system, promoting technological innovation and industrial development of open computing systems into a new stage, and establishing a global highland for key technology R&D and an innovation source for the open computing systems industry.
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Professor Xie Tao
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Facing the Intelligent Era,
Training Top Innovative Talents in New Engineering
Currently, the founding team of the Research Institute has gathered a research team with high academic standards and significant international influence, having a solid foundation in the field of open computing systems, forming comprehensive advantages in system software for large-scale intelligent computing, and possessing strong support from fundamental disciplines.
The Research Institute prioritizes the construction of a high-end talent team as a key focus for the development of open computing systems, adhering to a combination of cultivation and introduction, improving the integration system of industry, academia, research, and application in open computing systems, and strengthening talent reserves and team building, especially accelerating the introduction of top global talents and young talents. Through major R&D tasks and base platform construction, the Research Institute aims to gather high-end talents in open computing systems from both domestic and international sources, forming several high-level innovative teams in key future areas of open computing systems.
The key research directions of the Research Institute include: architecture and system software optimization for large-scale distributed systems aimed at artificial intelligence, design of parallel programming languages and compilers for the next generation of artificial intelligence chips, construction of efficient runtime systems and software stacks supporting diverse artificial intelligence models and tasks, and collaborative design and vertical optimization technologies for hardware and software systems aimed at practical application scenarios.
Relying on the construction of open-source courseware and courses as well as the “AI Grand Course” initiative, Fudan University will also collaborate with the Research Institute to promote the training of top innovative talents in new engineering through interdisciplinary and multi-technology integration, carry out collaborative education projects focusing on advanced intelligent computing systems, and extend these initiatives to universities in Shanghai and across the country. Based on the development needs of key areas in advanced intelligent computing systems, the Research Institute will work with Fudan University and other universities to jointly formulate talent training plans for open computing systems, allowing students to choose training programs based on their professional directions and interests, enhancing their academic and industrial perspectives, and strengthening their practical and innovative capabilities.
