RISC-V Expands its Audience

Workshop attracts chip architects, execs

Rick Merritt
12/1/2016 07:20 AM EST

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The RISC-V movement is grabbing the attention of a growing set of chip architects and semiconductor executives. Several came to the group’s fifth workshop here to gauge whether the seeds planted by a handful of academics could grow into a disruptive, commercial reality.

The group aims to spread support for its free instruction set architecture across a broad range of products. Talks at the event made clear it will take several years for the ambitious efforts to bear fruit.

Many attendees said they felt exhilarated by the prospects of free, flexible cores unencumbered by patents with an ecosystem of innovations around them. Some feared the efforts could undermine existing markets in an industry already tightening its belt in a cold winter of consolidation.

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