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Introduction:
In the global chip market, there are two dominant chip instruction set architectures.
One is the x86 architecture, led by Intel, which is commonly used in personal computer CPUs.
The other is the Arm architecture, led by Arm, primarily used in mobile devices and embedded systems, such as smartphone SoC chips.
For a long time, the discourse power of these two mainstream architectures has been in the hands of overseas companies. Chinese semiconductor companies using related architectural technologies not only have to pay corresponding technical fees but also face the risk of technical sanctions and supply disruptions. Shanghai Zhaoxin uses the x86 instruction set for its self-developed architecture, while Huawei HiSilicon uses the Arm instruction set for its self-developed architecture, both of which have been subjected to technical sanctions by foreign governments.
Now, beyond x86 and Arm architectures, an open-source, streamlined, and modular instruction set architecture, RISC-V, is rapidly developing.
RISC-V Architecture
If chips are buildings, then instruction set architectures are like the design blueprints of these buildings. The RISC-V architecture was invented at the University of California, Berkeley. The core invention team includes Professor Krste Asanović and Professor David Patterson, along with their two graduate students, Andrew Waterman and Yunsup Lee.
The biggest feature of RISC-V is its openness and free access; anyone and any company can use the RISC-V instruction set for chip design, manufacturing, and sales without charge.The RISC-V patents are maintained by the non-profit RISC-V International Foundation, which is not affiliated with any commercial company or country.
For Chinese semiconductor companies, the RISC-V instruction set is key to breaking foreign technology monopolies. On one hand, using RISC-V does not require paying high licensing fees. More importantly, RISC-V technology is completely open, allowing Chinese semiconductor companies to conduct fully autonomous and controllable technological upgrades and expansions based on it, without being interrupted or restricted, fundamentally ensuring a smooth path for Chinese semiconductor companies to achieve completely autonomous and controllable semiconductor technology.
Cambricon’s SiYuan 370 Intelligent Acceleration Card
Cambricon’s core product, the SiYuan 370, uses its self-developed MLUarch03 architecture, which also incorporates contributions from the RISC-V architecture. In the company’s early R&D, a hybrid architecture of “Arm + RISC-V” was used for a long time. Now, the successful development of the self-developed instruction set MLUv3 has helped the company to some extent bypass its dependence on the Arm architecture, while RISC-V has always been the main architecture for auxiliary and control cores in Cambricon chips.
Beyond Cambricon, there are also a number of excellent companies in China applying RISC-V, including projects invested by the Youmai Family Office.
Alibaba Damo Academy
Alibaba Damo Academy, part of Alibaba Group, has its Xuantie series processors, which have become important technical benchmarks in the global RISC-V ecosystem, covering multiple fields such as smart home, autonomous driving, and industrial control. Its Xuantie C930 chip is the first server-level RISC-V chip IP core in China, successfully delivered to customers in March this year.
In addition, Damo Academy has launched the “Wujian” SoC chip design platform to accelerate agile chip development. The Wujian platform integrates the self-developed processor IP from Pingtouge and various basic IPs (such as interfaces, storage, etc.), providing supporting software and EDA tools. Chip design companies can quickly select the modules they need on this platform like building blocks and conduct minimal customization to rapidly design a SoC chip that meets specific requirements.
SiFan Technology
（Youmai Investment Project）
SiFan focuses on RISC-V chip and IP design, providing autonomous and controllable RISC-V solutions for customers in the Chinese market. Utilizing self-owned intellectual property processors and other core IPs, it integrates core technologies for applications such as AI-IOT, providing a series of chips and solutions in related fields, and is currently a leader in several niche areas of RISC-V technology and a mainstream supplier of customized chips.
The company’s founder, Xu Tao, held senior management positions at international leading EDA and semiconductor IP company Synopsys before starting his own business, with over 25 years of rich experience in the semiconductor industry. He has close ties with the RISC-V architecture invention team and possesses rich technical accumulation and profound understanding of the RISC-V architecture.
SiFan Technology launched the world’s first high-performance RISC-V chip JH7110, featuring a quad-core RISC-V processor. Over 30 commercial products that have been released or are under development globally have adopted the JH7110 chip.
Alongside the JH7110, the company has created the most well-known and best-selling VisionFive development board globally and has invested significant effort in promoting the RISC-V software ecosystem, optimizing and porting multiple mainstream operating systems and software to the RISC-V platform.
SiFan Technology founder Xu Tao
The company has now become one of the leading enterprises in the RISC-V sector, with over 100 IP licensing customers globally, and its latest valuation is nearly 4 billion yuan.
ChipRise Technology
（Youmai Investment Project）
ChipRise Technology, established in 2018, is one of the earliest professional RISC-V processor IP and solution companies in mainland China. The company focuses on the research and development of RISC-V architecture processor cores.
The founder, Hu Zhenbo, is a senior expert in the global processor field, having held core processor architect and R&D management positions at top international technology companies such as Cisco, Marvell, and Synopsys, with over 20 years of experience in processor core design and SoC architecture.
ChipRise Technology is renowned in the industry for its comprehensive product layout and complete supporting toolchain, being one of the few companies capable of providing a full range of RISC-V IP cores covering everything from low-power microcontrollers to high-performance application processors. It has also independently developed the NucleiStudio integrated development environment, significantly lowering the threshold for customers to develop software based on ChipRise IP and shortening product development cycles.
Currently, over 150 customers globally have adopted ChipRise Technology’s RISC-V IP. The cumulative shipment of SoC chips embedded with ChipRise processor IP has exceeded 400 million units, widely used in various fields such as IoT, MCU, wireless communication, storage control, display driving, industrial control, and automotive electronics.
Conclusion
With the joint efforts of Chinese semiconductor companies, the RISC-V market is developing at an unprecedented speed. According to well-known market research firm Omdia, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the RISC-V chip market from 2020 to 2024 is expected to reach 75%, with RISC-V processor shipments expected to approach 3 billion units by 2025, maintaining a high growth rate of 50% CAGR, and exceeding 17 billion units by 2030.
The application range of RISC-V chips is extremely broad, not only in the high-performance computing field of AI chips but also widely applicable in IoT, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, and other large markets. The development value of RISC-V chip technology far exceeds the financial revenue growth of several semiconductor companies; it is more about the comprehensive construction of China’s domestically produced and controllable chip supply chain. RISC-V is an important core upstream hardware technology for China to move towards an intelligent era, providing significant empowerment value to the vast majority of intelligent industries.
In addition to the aforementioned Alibaba Damo Academy, as well as Youmai’s invested projects SiFan Technology and ChipRise Technology, there are many semiconductor companies, including SuanNeng Technology, YiSiWei Computing, and Zhaoyi Innovation, working together to build a vast RISC-V ecosystem both nationally and globally. Looking ahead, driven by the open-source ecosystem, more and more excellent talents and companies are expected to join the development of the RISC-V ecosystem, and RISC-V is likely to become the “third pole” of the world semiconductor architecture after x86 and Arm.
As a buy-side family asset management professional institution, Youmai Family Office’s professional equity investment team has long studied the primary market. We conduct comprehensive market tracking research, engage in extensive and close communication with professional investment institutions in the market, and study the laws and logic of technological development and commercialization. These research results are important due diligence bases for us when selecting outstanding equity fund managers, allowing us to understand which managers have unique and scientific investment theoretical bases, which managers know where to find the most promising startups, and which managers can create value for our investors. We have deep accumulation in selecting, evaluating, and managing equity investments for high-net-worth clients, effectively helping you allocate primary market equity investment funds and projects, assisting LP investors in screening and identifying truly high-quality equity investment managers. Additionally, we can provide consulting advice on your entrepreneurial projects and enterprises, including strategic financing, overseas expansion, and other strategic development topics, from the perspective of the entire equity investment market. If you have any needs in this regard, please feel free to contact us.
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Youmai Family Office was established in 2014 and is a Sino-foreign joint venture registered with the Chinese Business Committee, which established a buy-side position from the beginning, focusing on providing family asset management professional services for (ultra) high-net-worth individuals in the Chinese market.
We are one of the earliest professional institutions engaged in family office business in the Chinese market, a buy-side positioning “family asset management” professional service institution. Since our establishment, we have continuously accumulated and grown, and by 2023, we have established a complete service system with over 40 employees. To better serve our clients, the company invests over ten million yuan annually in purchasing data, system development, and investment research system construction, systematically establishing capabilities and resources related to family asset management, including legal, tax planning, asset allocation, etc. Our clients are successful individuals from various fields, including private entrepreneurs, shareholders or executives of listed companies, internet & technology elites, serial entrepreneurs, professionals, and second-generation family members of high-net-worth individuals.
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