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Linux Now Has its First Open Source RISC-V Processor (designnews.com)
"SiFive has declared that 2018 will be the year of RISC V Linux processors," writes Design News. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
When it released its first open-source system on a chip, the Freeform Everywhere 310, last year, Silicon Valley startup SiFive was aiming to push the RISC-V architecture to transform the hardware industry in the way that Linux transformed the software industry. Now the company has delivered further on that promise with the release of the U54-MC Coreplex, the first RISC-V-based chip that supports Linux, Unix, and FreeBSD... This latest development has RISC-V enthusiasts particularly excited because now it opens up a whole new world of use cases for the architecture and paves the way for RISC-V processors to compete with ARM cores and similar offerings in the enterprise and consumer space...
"The U54 Coreplexes are great for companies looking to build SoC's around RISC-V," Andrew Waterman co-founder and chief engineer at SiFive, as well as the one of the co-creators of RISC-V, told Design News. "The forthcoming silicon is going to enable much better software development for RISC-V." Waterman said that, while SiFive had developed low-level software such as compilers for RISC-V the company really hopes that the open-source community will be taking a much broader role going forward and really pushing the technology forward. "No matter how big of a role we would want to have we can't make a dent," Waterman said. "But what we can do is make sure the army of engineers out there are empowered."
"The U54 Coreplexes are great for companies looking to build SoC's around RISC-V," Andrew Waterman co-founder and chief engineer at SiFive, as well as the one of the co-creators of RISC-V, told Design News. "The forthcoming silicon is going to enable much better software development for RISC-V." Waterman said that, while SiFive had developed low-level software such as compilers for RISC-V the company really hopes that the open-source community will be taking a much broader role going forward and really pushing the technology forward. "No matter how big of a role we would want to have we can't make a dent," Waterman said. "But what we can do is make sure the army of engineers out there are empowered."
What's the big advantage with RISC over ARM or x86
Licensing costs
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Bingo. All the companies involved in making SoCs will be looking to cut out the ARM licensing fee. ARM typically takes $1-10 million up front plus 1-2% per chip, so you can see how their customers would be eager to keep that for themselves.
Less instruction sets makes assemblers and compilers easier to implement, also is easier to anyone check if there is a bug or abusable feature (There are people and businesses that do not require or want ARM TrustZone, AMD PSP or Intel ATM).
Licensing also matters a lot, is easier to develop further without fear of litigation and research groups can find and publish better reviews and recommendations without fear of being sued.
But you can't verify that the design you're looking at is what the plant actually implemented on the chip.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!