RISC-V is not only a new trend in the Chinese chip industry but has also stirred a global RISC-V whirlwind. Legendary architecture engineer Jim Keller from AMD and Apple, after developing architectures like Alpha, x86, and Arm, has decided to bet on the RISC-V architecture for AI chips; Qualcomm, which has a long-standing partnership with Arm, has recently hinted that Arm is an outdated “traditional architecture” with useless features that cannot meet design requirements.
It seems that overnight, RISC-V has become the new darling of global chip architectures. In fact, the most authentic successor of RISC-V, Krste Asanović, recently led his company SiFive to complete the “2023 SiFive RISC-V China Technology Forum” in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen. Three years ago, in December 2019, there were about 435 members of RISC-V, and today, the number has nearly reached 4000, growing almost tenfold.
Krste Asanović is the inventor of RISC-V and a co-founder and chief architect of SiFive. Currently, SiFive has over 600 employees globally, more than 100 clients, and over 350 design projects. Among the top ten semiconductor companies, eight have adopted SiFive‘s RISC-V core technology, achieving core shipments exceeding billions of units.
SiFive’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Geng Zhijian, stated, “The future of RISC-V is limitless; it can be applied in any market. If we look at the next 5, 10, or 15 years, everything can become RISC-V.”
The current global chip market is dominated by x86 and Arm architectures. The former is dominant in the PC and server markets, while the latter rules the mobile era. As we enter new eras like automotive and AI, the shortcomings of both x86 and Arm architectures are becoming apparent. Coupled with the risks of frequent technology bans in recent years, the open, flexible, and modular characteristics of RISC-V have made it the best choice for automotive, IoT, and AI fields.
Krste Asanović stated that the biggest difference between RISC-V and x86 or Arm is that it is not dominated by any single company. Companies designing chips using the RISC-V architecture have greater independence. When encountering new market opportunities like automotive and AI, where all software needs to be modified, it is very suitable to adopt RISC-V.
Recently, many foreign companies attending the Shanghai Auto Show felt that domestic companies have produced cars much faster than expected over the past three years, putting immense pressure on European and American car manufacturers. Previously, those car manufacturers were slow to act and took 5 to 7 years to update, but the Chinese market requires annual changes, and the pace of production is also relatively fast.
SiFive has many advantages in entering the automotive field with RISC-V, as the automotive industry needs to meet many standards. SiFive is a global company with clients in China, Japan, Europe, and the United States, and its products have been accepted worldwide, giving domestic clients confidence.
However, the current application of RISC-V chips is still mainly concentrated in low-power MCUs and IoT. As the leading manufacturer of RISC-V, SiFive aims to gradually guide the potential of RISC-V from mid-to-low-end MCUs and IoT markets to high-performance applications like automotive. Currently, SiFive’s RISC-V processors already cover AI, automotive electronics, data centers, mobile computing, and consumer electronics.
SiFive’s processor core IP product portfolio is based on the RISC-V instruction set and offers four major series of processor products suitable for various application scenarios:
SiFive Essential: Provides a wide range of processor solutions, allowing users to choose from off-the-shelf standard processor IP series or configure and build various customized processor cores using SiFive’s proprietary Core Designer tool.
SiFive Performance: This series targets high-performance applications with area optimization, providing high-performance application-level processors IP. These RISC-V application processors are suitable for wearables, smart homes, mobile devices, networking equipment, and various applications.
SiFive Intelligence: This series adopts the latest software-first design approach in processor design, featuring high-performance vector operations to meet the needs of various applications in artificial intelligence and deep learning.
SiFive Automotive: This series of processor IP is designed to meet the needs of high-performance, high-efficiency, and system safety electronic product architectures. This design can cover various application scenarios such as automotive infotainment, electronic cockpits, connectivity, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), and electronic products.
The RISC-V track gathers global tech talents. According to statistics from the RISC-V Foundation, as of last July, the shipment of RISC-V architecture chips has exceeded 10 billion units, and it is expected that by 2025, the shipment of RISC-V architecture chips will surpass 80 billion units. SiFive is the leader of the RISC-V architecture, helping Chinese clients, markets, and ecosystems accelerate the adoption of RISC-V.
