{"id":80287,"date":"2020-10-02T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/"},"modified":"2020-10-02T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T08:00:00","slug":"an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/","title":{"rendered":"#An Open Alternative to Intel and ARM: What is RISC-V?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27e21e186c3\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27e21e186c3\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/#An_Alternative_to_Intel_and_ARM_Designs\" >An Alternative to Intel and ARM Designs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/#How_RISC-V_Is_Different\" >How RISC-V Is Different<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/#The_Need_for_Speed\" >The Need for Speed<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/#Companies_Are_Already_Using_RISC-V\" >Companies Are Already Using RISC-V<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#An Open Alternative to Intel and ARM: What is RISC-V?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_691492\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-691492 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/risc-v.jpg.pagespeed.ce.8cRja8hgWR.jpg\" alt=\"An RISC-V logo sign at a conference.\" width=\"650\" height=\"367\" data-crediturl=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D8-mlouqQ-0\" data-credittext=\"RISC-V International\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D8-mlouqQ-0\">RISC-V International<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you want to build an open-source computer, you can\u2014if you\u2019re talking about software. The processor under the hood, however, is proprietary. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/riscv.org\/\">RISC-V<\/a> is an open-source processor design that\u2019s rapidly gaining traction and promises to change the computing landscape.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"An_Alternative_to_Intel_and_ARM_Designs\"><\/span>An Alternative to Intel and ARM Designs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Presently, two processor designs reign supreme: those created by ARM and Intel\u2019s x86. While both companies operate at a tremendous scale, their business models are fundamentally different.<\/p>\n<p>Intel designs and manufactures its own chips, while ARM licenses its designs to third-party designers, like Qualcomm and Samsung, which then add their own enhancements. While Samsung has the infrastructure to fabricate its processors in-house, Qualcomm (and other \u201cfabless\u201d designers) outsources this important work to third parties.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of ARM, this also often requires licensors to sign non-disclosure agreements designed to keep aspects of a chip\u2019s design private. That\u2019s hardly surprising, considering its entire business model isn\u2019t shaped around manufacturing, but rather, intellectual property.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Intel has its own commercial design secrets under lock and key. Since both processor types are commercial, it\u2019s hard (if not entirely impossible) for academics and open-source hackers to influence the design.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_RISC-V_Is_Different\"><\/span>How RISC-V Is Different<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>RISC-V is wildly different. First, it\u2019s not a company. It was first conceived in 2010 by academics at the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.berkeley.edu\/\">University of California at\u00a0Berkeley<\/a>\u00a0as an open-source, royalty-free alternative to the existing incumbents.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s similar to installing Linux instead of Windows so you don\u2019t have to buy anything or agree to any onerous licensing agreements. RISV-V aims to do the same for semiconductor research and design.<\/p>\n<p>ARM also licenses both the instruction set architecture (ISA), which refers to the commands that can natively be understood by a processor, and the microarchitecture, which shows how it can be implemented.<\/p>\n<p>RISC-V merely offers the ISA, allowing researchers and manufacturers to define how they actually want to use it. This makes it scalable for devices of all s<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>es, from low-powered, 16-bit chips for embedded systems, to 128-bit processors for supercomputers.<\/p>\n<p>As the name suggests, RISC-V uses the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles, the same as chips based on ARM, MIPS, SPARC, and Power designs.<\/p>\n<p>What does this mean? Well, at the heart of any computer processor, there are things called instructions. In the most basic of terms, these are small programs represented in hardware that tell the processor what to do.<\/p>\n<p>RISC-based chips typically have fewer instructions than chips using a complex instruction set computer (CISC) design, like those offered by Intel. Furthermore, the instructions themselves are far simpler to implement in the hardware.<\/p>\n<p>Simpler instructions mean chip manufacturers can be far more efficient with their chip designs. The trade-off is these relatively complex tasks aren\u2019t performed by the processor. Instead, they\u2019re broken down into multiple, smaller instructions by software.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, RISC has earned the nickname Relegate the Important Stuff to the Compiler. While that sounds like a bad thing, it isn\u2019t. To understand it, though, you first have to understand what a computer processor actually is.<\/p>\n<p>The processor in your phone or computer consists of billions of tiny components called transistors. In the case of CISC-based chips, many of these transistors represent the various instructions available.<\/p>\n<p>Since RISC chips have fewer, simpler instructions, you don\u2019t need many transistors. This means you have more room to do a lot of interesting things. For example, you could include more cache and memory registers, or extra functionality for AI and graphics processing.<\/p>\n<p>You can also make the chip physically smaller by using fewer overall transistors. This is why RISC-based chips from MIPS and ARM are frequently found in Internet of Things (IoT) devices.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Need_for_Speed\"><\/span>The Need for Speed<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_691494\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-691494 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/engineer-with-computer-chip.jpg.pagespeed.ce.vtdj1idjwQ.jpg\" alt=\"An engineer holding a computer chip.\" width=\"650\" height=\"300\" data-crediturl=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/cropped-image-engineer-holding-computer-microchip-183590216\" data-credittext=\"Dragon Images\/Shutterstock\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/cropped-image-engineer-holding-computer-microchip-183590216\">Dragon Images\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of course, licensing isn\u2019t the only rationale for RISC-V. David Patterson, who led the first research projects in RISC processor design, said RISC-V was <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2019\/12\/11\/risc-v-grows-globally-as-an-alternative-to-arm-and-its-license-fees\/\">designed to address the impending limits on CPU performance<\/a> that can be gained from manufacturing improvements.<\/p>\n<p>The more transistors you can fit on a chip, the more capable a processor ultimately becomes. As a result, chip manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung (which both manufacture processors on behalf of third parties) are working hard to shrink the size of transistors even more.<\/p>\n<p>The first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, had just 2,250 transistors, each measuring 10,000 nanometers (about 0.01mm). Small, certainly, but contrast that with <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le\u2019s A14 Bionic processor, released 40 years later. That chip (which powers the new iPad Air) has 11.8 billion transistors, each measuring 5 nanometers across.<\/p>\n<p>In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, the cofounder of Intel, theorized that the number of transistors that could be placed on a chip would double every two years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year,\u201d Moore wrote in the 35th-anniversary issue of <em>Electronics<\/em>\u00a0magazine. \u201cCertainly, over the short-term, this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moore\u2019s Law is expected to cease to apply this decade. There\u2019s also considerable doubt as to whether chip manufacturers can continue this trend toward miniaturization long-term. This applies at both the basic scientific level and the economic one.<\/p>\n<p>Smaller transistors are, after all, vastly more complicated and expensive to manufacture. TSMC, for example, spent over $17 billion on its factory for creating 5 nm chips. Given\u00a0this brick wall, Risk-V aims to address the problem of performance by looking at ways besides shrinking the size and number of transistors.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Companies_Are_Already_Using_RISC-V\"><\/span>Companies Are Already Using RISC-V<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The RISC-V project started in 2010, and the first chip using the ISA was manufactured in 2011. Three years later, the project went public, and commercial interest soon followed. The <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> is already being used by companies like NVIDIA, Alibaba, and Western Digital.<\/p>\n<p>The irony is there\u2019s nothing inherently groundbreaking about RISC-V. The Foundation <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/riscv.org\/about\/history\/\">notes on its webpage<\/a>: \u201cThe RISC-V ISA is based on computer architecture ideas that date back at least 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What, arguably, is groundbreaking, though, is the business model\u2014or lack of one. It\u2019s this that exposes the project to experimentation, development, and, potentially, unfettered growth. As the RISC-V Foundation <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/riscv.org\/about\/history\/\">also notes on its website<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe interest is because it is a common free and open standard to which software can be ported, and which allows anyone to freely develop their own hardware to run the software.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At this writing, RISC-V chips largely toil behind the scenes in server farms and as microcontrollers. It remains to be seen whether there\u2019s any potential to shake up the ARM\/Intel ISA duopoly in the consumer space.<\/p>\n<p>However, should the incumbents stagnate, it\u2019s within the realm of possibility that a dark horse could gallop in and change everything.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/691224\/an-open-alternative-to-intel-and-arm-what-is-risc-v\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#An Open Alternative to Intel and ARM: What is RISC-V?&#8221; RISC-V International If you want to build an open-source computer, you can\u2014if you\u2019re talking about software. The processor under the hood, however, is proprietary. RISC-V is an open-source processor design that\u2019s rapidly gaining traction and promises to change the computing landscape. An Alternative to Intel&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/thumbcache\/2\/200\/5110776ea95450c4010de96f575d54e9\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/risc-v.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}