Explaining RISC-V: An x86 & ARM Alternative

День тому

RISC-V is an alternative microprocessor technology to x86 and ARM, with its instruction set architecture (ISA) being open rather than closed. This video explains what RISC-V is all about, including its origins, key market players, hardware, applications, intellectual property (IP), and the likely role of global politics and international trade barriers in determining RISC-V’s success.
Note that I have posted a "RISC-V 2023 Update" video here: • RISC-V 2023 Update: Fr...
My previous review of the VisionFive RISC-V SBC that can run a Linux OS is here:
• VisionFive RISC-V Linu...
And my review of the Nezha RISC-V SBC that can also run a Linux OS is here:
• Nezha RISC-V Linux SBC
REFERENCES
Specific sources included in the video are as follows:
RISC-V International: riscv.org/
The first RISC-V Instruction Set Manual (from 2011):
www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/T...
SiFive website: www.sifive.com/ and RISC-V core IP: www.sifive.com/risc-v-core-ip
SiFive development boards: www.sifive.com/boards
Samsung to use SiFive RISC-V cores: riscv.org/news/2019/12/samsun...
T-Head Xuantie product overview: www.t-head.cn/product/overview
Alibaba (T-Head) open sources Xuantie RISC-V cores:
pandaily.com/alibaba-announce...
Western Digital RISC-V: www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/... -- the technology brief pdf is particularly interesting: documents.westerndigital.com/...
Chinese Academy of Sciences release Xiangshan RISC-V processor: min.news/en/tech/022cca805cb0...
Russia to Build 8-Core RISC-V CPUs for Laptops, Government Systems: www.extremetech.com/computing...
India selects RISC-V for semiconductor self-sufficiency contest: www.theregister.com/2020/08/1...
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at / explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / explainingthefuture
If you are looking to purchase some of the hardware items that I use in my videos, I have created an Amazon Storefront here: www.amazon.com/shop/explainin... Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from any qualifying purchases you may make.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:26 Open & Closed ISAs
03:55 RISC-V Origins
05:15 Market Players
08:43 Entering the Mainstream
10:34 The Third Platform
#RISC-V #x86 #ARM #ExplainingComputers

КОМЕНТАРІ: 1 000

@scottduede8134 2 роки тому

This is easily the best open-source/closed-source hardware explanation I have been given. Thank you, ExplainingComputers! I really needed this.

@ExplainingComputers 2 роки тому

Thanks. :)

@theshooter89 Рік тому

totally agree

@segaunited3855 Рік тому

RAZOR.

@zackrider3708 Рік тому

@@ExplainingComputers sir, from what i understand the risc-v isa is free and open but the risc-v cores or microarchitecture is Not open or free,, How many companies open-source their risc-v cores or microarchitecture ?

@AndersHass Рік тому

The ISA is open. The hardware can be closed

@PeterJasper 2 роки тому

Open architecture and interoperability appear to be the hallmarks of advancement in technology as it fosters continued development and competition. I am sure that RISC-V will do well in an ‘uncertain’ world. Thanks for another great video.

@Chris.Brisson Рік тому

One might look at the development of the Tizen operating system for lessons learned. People need to eat, so they need to have gainful employment, so companies must expend R&D dollars to pay engineers, but cost accounting suggests the quarterly statement would be improved by using an established product rather than risking new development. RISC-V ISA was open-sourced over 10 years ago, and yet relatively few developers are working with it.

@terrydaktyllus1320 Рік тому

@@Chris.Brisson It's the old "Betamax vs. VHS" argument again, although I am probably "showing my age" here - the best technology is not always the most popular one. I don't even know much about RISC-V because in 4 decades of working on computers of all shapes and sizes, I came across it once in an Acorn Archimedes computer that a friend of mine developed software on somewhere around 1990.

@Peter1986C Рік тому

@@terrydaktyllus1320 The Acorn Archimedes did not use a RISC-V processor, but an "ancestor" to modern day ARM SoCs.

@conorstewart2214 Рік тому

Terry Daktyllus the Acorn was not RISC-V. RISC-V only came about in 2010. Im not familiar with the acorn but it may have used a RISC based processor but that in itself doesn’t tell you much about it. The best RISC-V chips are still quite a bit behind even average ARM chips, so they still have a very long way to go before they can even think about taking over. I also suppose a big disadvantage of everyone using RISC-V could be a security issue, if someone finds an unfixable exploit or issue in RISC-Vs design then loads of devices may have that exploit. RISC-V is good for interoperability except there are many different versions of the specification and it is determined by what features the chip is designed to have, like some have vector extensions, some have floating point support or atomic operations therefore for a program to be interoperable it needs to be compiled to use what resources are actually on the chip, and if a program needs vector support for example then it will either not be compilable for or run very slowly on a chip without vector support. This may not sound like much of an issue for simple programs, you just need to use a chip with the required functions, but once you get more complex like running Linux and running open source programs on that then it could become difficult to manage in my opinion, at least with a mainstream x86-64 cpu you know the same program will run on two different machines with different processors without an issue most of the time.

@Chris.Brisson Рік тому

@VoidField101x X-Windows did not replace Microsoft's GUI framework, but I would not say X Windows failed (as X11 is still widely used). But X-Windows does suffer from 30 years of being designed by committee, and so competing solutions are taking over. Don Hopkins has an interesting article on this titled "The X-Windows Disaster". Christopher Barnatt is explaining RISC-V here to an audience that has a primary interest general purpose computers, and he posits that RISC-V may join x64 and Arm in that market. Linux has less than 3% market share of personal computer OS after 30 years, and I wonder if RISC-V might see only that level of success.

@carecavoador 2 роки тому

Somehow Chris seems to read my mind. As he almost every week publishes a video about a subject I've been thinking about. As always, a very interesting video, very informative and top quality production. Thank you so much!

@rickedwards6150 2 роки тому

Have you been muttering about it around an Alexa-enabled device?

@famailiaanima 2 роки тому

It is The Algorithm syncing you two.

@ahmad-murery Рік тому

I think it's the other way around, Maybe Chris is forcing you to think about his next video 😁

@arunavaghatak6281 Рік тому

Law of attraction. Ask and you shall receive.

@rorytruman 2 роки тому

When I started out as an engineer the principle CPU I encountered was the Motorola 68K, CISC soon became dominant not necessarily because it was better but more due I believe to commercial partnerships. As a big fan of RISC over CISC during the late 80s and early 90s the debate as to which one was better fizzled out much to my disappointment so it is good to see a resurgence in interest. It just proves that good ideas never go away and the next few years promise to be quite exciting. Thanks for covering this subject Chris, I agree that geopolitical concerns will likely trigger an end to the dominance of the small number of players driving the current hardware/software market to the benefit of consumers who will have more choice in how they do their computing. Similarly crucial is open and common messaging protocols to support open computing

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks for this. :) I have fond memories of 68000 machines -- Amiga, Atari ST and QL.

@johnmckown1267 Рік тому

The only thing about RISC that might concern me is the amount of memory required to implement an algorithm vs. CISC. In many way, I consider a CICS instruction to almost be a fast subroutine call mechanism. IIRC, in many cases an X86_64 CISC instruction is actually implemented as a series of "micro-ops" in the CPU.

@rorytruman Рік тому

@@johnmckown1267 yes I see your point. There is always a balancing act between different design principles. My personal feeling is that RISC should be more reliable and predictable in obtained results

@ericwood3709 Рік тому

It's a shame that PowerPC didn't find wider acceptance, isn't it? It was great in the Power Mac and POWER continues to work wonders in big iron applications, but desktop RISC took a major hit when Apple went to Intel and there was basically no other desktop RISC option. The next closest thing must have been MIPS and Sparc CPUs used in various workstations from SGI and Sun, respectively, but of course they ran unique UNIX operating systems and were never aimed at home users. It's kind of cool, though, how RISC went "underground" in the form of Arm by largely taking over in mobile computing, where it was less publicized and marketed for what it was, only to emerge once more as a desktop architecture thanks to Apple's adoption and the limited Windows-on-Arm implementations we have seen so far, which hopefully will expand and eventually replace x86_64. Windows on Arm can already run x86 Windows applications as seamlessly as macOS runs x86 macOS applications on Arm, and there is robust Linux support for Arm, so I would expect to see Arm begin to take over even in the PC space in the near future, beginning with portables. I'm waiting and hoping for AMD to come out with an Arm-based desktop SoC. A RISC-V desktop SoC from them or another major company would likewise be amazing, but I would not expect Windows to be ported to it any time soon, which will keep RISC-V limited in its potential applications for a long time to come.

@genrabbit9995 Рік тому

@@johnmckown1267 I don't think the memory part is a problem. Most Programs size today comes from the graphic , not the code.

@stolz999 2 роки тому

Great Video! As russian I may confirm that inside my country there are some attempts to build own CPU. But there is a problem: it's relative easy to design CPU, but it's very hard to establish a production and even harder to have enough of software. RISC-V Instruction Set is very variable. So here is the problem - CPU-designers should have specific compilers for specific CPU...

@horseradishpower9947 2 роки тому

I have no doubt you Russians will succeed. You folks seem to thrive on challenge and difficulties. And I honestly want Russia to succeed in this. This war will end, and I want a future where our Russian friends can further the computer field. And I am sure you can.

@lovekush2880 2 роки тому

Russians + Chinese will succeed in CPU designers

@kayakMike1000 2 роки тому

As long as you follow the specification for RISC-V ISA, gcc and clang will be just fine. If you put in your own instructions, you'll probably need some assembly magic or an extension for clang or gcc.

@lovekush2880 Рік тому

@Utb00 007 Elbrus CPUs are not in Shops Elbrus 3 / Elbrus 5 / Elbrus 7 /Elbrus 9

@BruceHoult Рік тому

It's very simple. If you want a processor for phones / tablets/ PCs then you implement RV64GC, now also known as RVA20 (RISC-V Application processor profile 2020, which in a way is a bit misleading as it's just a new name for a spec that hasn't changed since 2015). That's what is supported by Fedora, Ubuntu, Android etc. Later this year the RVA22 spec will be published including extra things such as Vector processing. In due course there will be an RVA25 or RVA28 or so, but RVA20 will probably be supported by major software distributions forever, just as the original 2003 Athlon64 is still supported in amd64 Linux.

@alliejr 2 роки тому

It comes down to compiler and compiler-related technologies that drive virtualization as Apple has demonstrated with it's seamless move from x86 to (Apple) ARM.

@RubenKelevra Рік тому

Well the video demonstrated that you can run a full linux desktop on Risc-V, so no issue with compilers :)

@another3997 Рік тому

No, to be successful, RiscV needs to have much more than just compiler technologies. The ISA itself has to be efficient, the chip fabrication has to be cost competitive, and the individual processor designs need to be competitive in both cost and performance. The tool chain needs to be robust and everything has to be well documented. On top of that, it needs industry support, otherwise it will simply wither and die. Deficiencies in any one area can make or break the whole thing.

@RubenKelevra Рік тому

@@another3997 well, I don't see what's missing from your list - as there are already a lot of competitive chips out there. The issue is more about high power chips featuring a couple of dozen cores with efficient caching - that's basically everything missing. As an example Expressif with their very popular Esp8266 and ESP32 lineup recently announced to go full RISC-V in the future.

@RubenKelevra Рік тому

@@another3997 but this seems to change this year too, with the announcement of the MIPS eVocore P8700 - which is probably powerful enough to compete on the small server market as well as workstations.

@valenrn8657 Рік тому

Apple's Rosetta 2 doesn't emulate AVX.

@krzysztofklis 2 роки тому

I love the very insightful analysis at the end of the video. This is the first material about RISC-V I have seen on UKposts which takes into account not only technical aspects, but also economical and political ones. Like the Shakti initiative, which is largely ignored, but will probably soon have a huge impact on the whole chip market.

@ditzydoo4378 Рік тому

A day you learn something new, is a good day indeed. I'd often times wondered about this very subject. Thank you for taking the time to explain it such a comprehensive manner.

@thaernejem7317 2 роки тому

Always nice to see a new video notification!

@encycl07pedia- Рік тому

I think it's always a good thing for hardware and software not to belong to monopolies or oligopolies. That NVidia Effect you mentioned is a prime reason why having so few control so much is dangerous and nerve-wracking. ISPs here in the United States have oligopolies and geographical monopolies in many regions and charge way more than pretty much everywhere else in the world for internet access.

@encycl07pedia- Рік тому

@Zaydan Naufal That may be true, however most of the figures I've found have the USA near the top in terms of average broadband price, especially when we're comparing developed countries. The only SE Asian country I could find with more expensive average broadband internet prices was Laos. I didn't find any figures related to dial-up prices.

@kaptenhiu5623 Рік тому

As software engineers I can tell you that having monopolies or oligopolies in HARDWARE is blessing. It's hard to write a code, even harder to compile and test it against so many hardware

@encycl07pedia- Рік тому

@@kaptenhiu5623 I don't understand why well-written compiled code would work differently on different systems unless the compiler is bad.

@kaptenhiu5623 Рік тому

@@encycl07pedia- not only different hardware needs different compiler. Different operating system or architecture needs separate compiler too. Compiler is a software that converts your code in text into machine code (such as app.exe)

@encycl07pedia- Рік тому

@@kaptenhiu5623 Most people don't write compilers in addition to their code.

@vdivanov Рік тому

Great presentation on a pertinent topic, as always! Many thanks!

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks for your support. Very much appreciated. :)

@RoboNuggie 2 роки тому

A great look at RISC-V, and something I think will be a force majeure in IT terms.... exciting! Thank you Christopher!

@nichijoufan 2 роки тому

Robonuggie!!!!!!!

@RoboNuggie 2 роки тому

@@nichijoufan Hello! (こんにちは!) :-)

@HoldandModify Рік тому

I’m so excited about this stuff. Really has a chance to transform the arena once again. Fun for us all! Thank you for another informative video.

@locusf2 2 роки тому

Cost is also going to be a factor, since the licensing fees to produce ARM/x86 ISA chips is probably quite eye-watering. EDIT: Lot of really good replies have created more information on this. Top-of-the chain costs are minimal but it can be so that during chip development the costs can be expected to rise. Also one could consider the fact that chinese chip makers were embargoed from erratas from ARM due to international issues. I believe the embargo was not that long (some months) and has been lifted since.

@ExplainingComputers 2 роки тому

Oh yes, chip manufacture is a cost-intensive business.

@terrydaktyllus1320 Рік тому

I don't see how cost factors into it. For very low cost, I can pick up an ARM-based SBC (of countless different types), a highly configurable micro-controller like a Pi Pico or ESP-32, or just a used Intel Core-i? PC (of which there are countless cheap models for sale used on eBay or elsewhere). What is RISC going to give me that those other three options don't?

@Krieghandt Рік тому

@@terrydaktyllus1320 ability to extend the instruction set without making it public. example, military equipment with hidden anti-hacking hardware, removing sections of the cpu so it requires firm ware to run (ATMs do this already), the national labs are always designing a new supercomputer. Also, WD doesn't need all the ISA to run their hard drives or SSDs. So they can simplify the CPU quite a bit, and make a cheaper, yet more effective chip. Being able to customize the ISA allows you to modify the micro-code, which in turn allows you to modify the underlying silicone. Now, does this do much for an end user? Not really, except that x86 ISA was a hodge in 1986 and has only gotten marginally better.

@terrydaktyllus1320 Рік тому

@@Krieghandt I don't build weapons and I don't make my own chips. So "why should I care about RISC-V" still remains an unanswered question.

@DFX2KX Рік тому

@@terrydaktyllus1320 that's as a consumer. Consider for a moment, that you're a government currently in some sort of international dispute. Intel and AMD chips last a long time, but failures happen. *where are you going to get more* if those companies are barred by law from selling them? Governments can also muscle into the offices of major manufacturers to ensure that the chips they're buying are reasonably secure, but that has nothing on, say, having your own security agency produce cryptographic extensions to the ISA that you can ensure from start to finish. As a consumer? The whole ISA is open, so if you're a software engineer or tinkerer, you can write low-level software should you want. And if the hardware implementation is open-sourced like the ISA is (not all chips, but some) than security researchers can audit it in ways that simply cannot be don with, say, my Server's i5, this gaming machine's Ryzen 1700x, or the Qualcomm ARM chip in my Samsung phone. Those are all closed, so there are critical errors people STILL haven't found yet.

@markhatch1267 Рік тому

Thank you for your effort in providing perspective and current industry trends in simple language. Wish you all the best in your endeavors and this channel. Keep up the good work, but also take care of yourself and don't over work and burn out either.

@angryman9333 Рік тому

i love how you explain things so clearly, thank you

@bobdinitto Рік тому

Thanks for this succinct description of the various processor architectures. I agree with you that the open-source nature of RISC-V will be a prime motivator for further development. As we move forward we're seeing more and more utilization of open-source technologies as a way of ensuring access and promoting innovation.

@Mikael97 Рік тому

Great explanation, I really enjoy your educational videos, thanks for explaining things clearly, many people sometimes complicate and you made it easy for us, anyway, keep up your good work 👌🏽

@asknight 2 місяці тому

So glad I found this channel. Thanks for the easy to digest information!

@ExplainingComputers 2 місяці тому

Thanks for watching. :)

@Colin_Ames 2 роки тому

As always, a very interesting and informative video. Thanks Chris.

@MichelMorinMontreal Рік тому

I don't think there are many YT channels where processor architecture, global economics, geo-political considerations and "Open-source" issues are discussed in a single and clear presentation! I think the correct expression is "Master Class"! And, indeed, Professor Barnatt, it seems clear (to me) that "This is going to happend"! Congratulations and thanks!

@qc15pvetter 2 роки тому

Another amazing video Chris!

@ExplainingComputers 2 роки тому

Thanks for your support, most appreciated. :)

@Mkhwlani Рік тому

I really have to subscribe to you, i always search topics on computer and always see that you have a fantastic video covering the topic. Thanks so much and continue making good content 👍.

@ConfuSomu Рік тому

Thanks for the overview! I learned a lot via this video. Amazing video as always!

@MicrobyteAlan 2 роки тому

Very informative, interesting and well presented. Good stuff to know, thanks. 👍👍

@derek20la Рік тому

12:30 The biggest reason China, India, and Russia want to move away from x86 is because the built in Management Engine on Intel and AMD's Secure Technology can be used as backdoors by government intelligence agencies. Those subprocessors have been included on CPUs for over a decade now. On normal units, trying to disable the IME will render the processor unbootable. Except for special high security models made exclusively for the US Govt which have it hardware disabled from the factory.

@MdFahimMuntasir Рік тому

Amazing chris! Every week you gave such enjoyable video I must have to see it. As long as you explans over different tech subjects. Love after you upload a video. 😊👍💙

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks for watching. :)

@davidtipton514 Рік тому

Thanks for the reviews and explanations! I really appreciate your videos.

@johnmckown1267 Рік тому

One ISA which was not mentioned is from IBM in its proprietary "enterprise" mainframe, the "series z" which is the great^n grandchild of the S/360 mainframe from the 1960s. Granted, this is not something the average person will come across. But it is a very interesting, to me, because I've worked on them for 40+ years. It is a very CISC architecture. One reason for its popularity in very large enterprise systems is its extreme reliability. I have had a CPU fail & the hardware did a fall over to a backup CPU in the machine with NO outage to the code running on the failed CPU. That code was restarted by the hardware automatically and the OS was simply "informed" of the fact for reporting purposes. In addition, the machine automatically "called" IBM service, who came out and "hot swapped" a new CPU replacement. Again, with no outage to anything running on the machine.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Very interesting, thanks for sharing here. :)

@captain150 11 місяців тому

That is quite interesting. I can't imagine the other CPU is just a spare waiting for the primary to fail, is it? Both CPUs would normally be in use, yeah? If one fails then its workload is transferred to the other? What kind of use-cases would demand such extreme up-time/reliability? Banking comes to mind.

@johnmckown1267 11 місяців тому

@@captain150 every IBM z mainframe comes with multiple physical CPUs. The exact number depends on the model. But your license, enforced in the "firmware" only allows "n" of them to actually be running. The others are in a kind of "hibernate" state, doing nothing. If an active CPU fails, one of the "hiberating" CPUs is activated and automatically recovers the work it was doing.

@johnmckown1267 11 місяців тому

@@captain150 yes, banking like ATMs is a case. Anythhing where an outage could cause harm or servere customer upset.

@bitwise2832 4 місяці тому

If I recall, from an IBM course in the 1990s, the MTBF for the 390 was 30 years.

@lawrenceallwright7041 Рік тому

"Unlike some in the industry, I do believe that this is going to happen." And if Chris says it's going to happen, it's going to happen. Another eloquently explained video, thank you for all the research that you put in to bring us these insights, Mr B.

@geog8964 2 роки тому

Thank you for the comprehensive introduction.

@ronkemperful 2 роки тому

Fascinating! I am looking forward to building a RISC-V desktop computer, with you, of course giving the helpful step-by-step instructions in a future video.

@charlesburnaford7591 Рік тому

The first RISC computer that I worked on was the DEC PDP 8. which had only 13 instructions. The assembly language source code for the BASIC interpreter was about 6000 lines of code in PAL. It ran in 4 to 8K of ferrite core memory.

@deanstyles2567 2 роки тому

Another great video Chris! What I think will prove interesting is how the extra processors in an SoC or CPU would be integated in this 'brand new world' of RISC-V. It seems that modem chips are loaded with all sorts of processors for things like hardware encoding/decoding of proprietary media codecs, image signal processors, dedicated AI hardware, etc. Especially with proprietary codecs in a more 'constrained' trade environment.

@renobodyrenobody Рік тому

Excellent, thanks a lot, I was waiting for this one since months! Thank you Christopher.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks for this -- I got there in the end! :)

@JLCPCB Рік тому

Very good explanation on the topic and also really interesting to watch!

@fremenondesand3896 Рік тому

you know, as scary as change is, it's about time it happened, it just needed the right sort of push. I for one am hopeful this innovation will lead to a bright new future for computing. I hope it's not just being optimistic.

@jajwarehouse1 Рік тому

I see two potential big problems that could hinder the wide acceptance and use of RISC-V. First, much like Linux, every manufacturer will want to build its own flavor, and although software that adheres to using the core instructions should theorectically work on any manufacturer's chip, we all know there will be compatibility issues even before introducing custom logic. This would further complicate software running applications on Linux as now you would need to be sure it is both compatible with the flavor of Linux on top of the flavor of the CPU. The second and much more dangerous issue will be the manufacturers, especially government owned, being able to embed instructions for, let's say, reasons outside of performance improvements.

@dequeue3301 Рік тому

A very interesting point raised! In that case, there needs to be some kind of standardization of RISC-V so that besides the prospect of building flavors, some core architectures, including compatibility issues, remain same for similar/all range of devices. As for embedding unwanted instructions in the microprocessor, I believe surveillance in a capitalist system where the State is ever so paranoid of dissent, it could certainly move towards such measures (they already sponsor spywares). In such cases I believe the need is to overthrow such regimes and establish its antithesis in dictatorship of the proletariat and take the first steps towards world socialism.

@MattOGormanSmith Рік тому

I don't see a big problem. Linux distros will be precompiled for base levels, in the same way that i386 builds were used for 486 & Pentium. Standard extensions will be supported first by compilers, and then as standard distro builds if demand is there. Non-standard extensions may only be supported by the manufacturer, but in the worst case you'd recompile stuff yourself. As long as the compiler is open source, there is limited scope for nefarious instructions. Less than in a proprietary OS for an intel chip, for sure.

@Martinit0 5 місяців тому

I don't think "every manufacturer will want to build its own flavor" is generally true. In fact, if you are not a big (Intel size) manufacturer you may want to stay compatible with existing designs to encourage adoption. Yes, if you are Intel you may want to throw in your own salt to make life difficult for competitors. But I don't think this is generally true for every manufacturer.

@AbrarShaikh2741 5 місяців тому

😅

@evilhamsterman 5 місяців тому

@@Martinit0depends on the use. RISC-V is picking up steam for embedded systems, that are very specialized and not used for general purpose. Like Western Digital using it for drive controllers. It's a royalty free ISA that they can do whatever they want with for their specific need

@joeg3950 2 роки тому

Thank you for another rich-in-content video. Have a fantastic day!

@linxiaohuang4629 Рік тому

High quality as always! Thx!

@sepgorut2492 Рік тому

Interesting SBC times ahead!

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Yes, very much. I expect we will have at least one RISC-V board cost and performance competitive with a Raspberry Pi a year from now.

@SergiuszRoszczyk 2 роки тому

The last section reminded me of russian Elbrus 8S CPU and deep interactions with open source community. While CPU somewhat works there is a need for library support. And when it was done once it can be taken by anyone and no restrictions will prevent that. Speaking of Risc-V ISA I wonder how it will develop in future. ARM is not only ISA IP but also cores. In Risc-V it is up to companies and countries do develop cores and manufacturing processes for them. That part might get quite interesting.

@Anticorriente Рік тому

Russian gov will be star to develop hight foundries in the new years, so maybe Risc-V cores made by russians will be appear in the market in a few years.

@kek777pasj Рік тому

I pretty sure that elbrus 8c (e2k/vliw) cpu works at same performance level of E5-2609 v3 (cpu from 2014) for java service after tweaks and also with extra steps of software optimizations for closed e2k architecture and their C/C++ compiler. While E5-2609 v3 on amazon cost around 100 usd, that elbrus 8c cost around 1000-1500 usd (as part of russian pcbox for home/office users by ao-avtomatika). Also Russian manufactures showed early looks of their baikal notebooks that pretty much looks like SoC board for TVs inside notebook case XD and Mali graphics.

@homijbhabha8860 Рік тому

@@Anticorriente there's also a RISC 5 CPU called Shakti processor made by India as an indigenous CPU, although the design was done here the fabrication for it was done by Intel in the US, so don't know how independent we can get with such stuff without fabrication centers in India itself

@billkaroly 2 роки тому

Wow. Great presentation. This made me think back to the MOS 6502 for some unrelated reason.

@mikelincoln8395 Рік тому

Thanks again for all your videos

@3v068 Рік тому

I first learned about RISC-V when I was looking up the PS2 and how I could make homebrew games for it. The PS2 was made with a RISC processor and it was made BRILLIANTLY by Sony.

@fernandoalarcon525 Рік тому

Where you not listening when he explained that risc 5 was made in 2010

@3v068 Рік тому

@@fernandoalarcon525 did you not see that i never said that Sony made the ps2 with a RISC-V processor?

@3v068 Рік тому

@@fernandoalarcon525 RISC was in development long before RISC-V. It was practically an improvement to one of the most efficient and the greatest selling console in history. I was talking about how awesome RISC is. Not how Sony made the ps2 with RISC-V which would have been impossible.

@Reziac Рік тому

Very informative, and a good start. Could we extend this topic to compare the capabilities (and particular benefits or deficiencies) of each family of CPUs?

@Clockwork_Planet Рік тому

This was fascinating. Thank you.

@justjustgord Рік тому

Fantastic series ! .. RISCV brings back some of the original excitement of the early computers from the 80s. Would be great to explore some of these Neural processor cores in future. Thankyou !

@johnglielmi6428 2 роки тому

All open source is a great thing and keeps technology and ideas moving forward. I'd like to see more information on encryption technology as well. You are a great teacher and I will always enjoy every video you create Chris. please do keep them coming and keeping everyone interested up to date on all areas of Computer technology. Thank you for all you have done and will do in future for us all. As a side note: My concern is how easy would it be to hack a system using RISC-V technology? Identity theft is already a huge concern for people. and if we are just making it easier for cyber criminals to get at information. I don't see a benefit. No encryption system is uncrackable. We are always hearing how Government facilities, Social Media sites and Banking industries (i.e. Credit Card Companies) are being hacked and all information being stolen. This is a huge problem and could effect entire economies if we are not vigilant in trying to keep private information just that private.

@sharonwolff1 Рік тому

Most (maybe all?) encryption algorithm are 'open source', in the sense that they intentionally don't hide how they work so the larger community can look for flaws. The 'secret' of encryption is that they have algorithms that are easy to go one way and hard to do the inverse without knowing the encryption key. They don't work by having a secret way of scrambling the data that some reverse engineering can easily break.

@evannibbe9375 Рік тому

Hackers don’t work from inside assembly instructions. The modern hackers you encounter will be going after php and JavaScript, and Adobe Flash-powered websites. The biggest targets for the hacks that steal your information are websites storing passwords using plaintext, or otherwise from users who don’t make long enough or complicated enough passwords. The billions of dollars stolen in scams each year don’t even come from actual hacking, but rather social engineering of convincing people on the phone, email or via advertising to give out personal information from their own free will based either on promises of future payment or fear-mongering by appealing to authorities. As far as open source hardware and software goes, the open-ness means that you can personally check for security flaws, and you can then tell the designers to fix those flaws. The open-ness also forces better design because companies don’t want to be caught using a bad underlying design. What you are thinking of is security through obscurity, which is a complete joke in Computer Science, and has considerably harmed the field by reducing the extent to which students can actually learn about what might be wrong with the software and hardware they might be using.

@peppe540 Рік тому

Excellent video Chris (again)! Clarity, sketching the here and now and the future. Very keen on the follow-ups; I agree RISC-V will enable many parties to develop their own solutions, which in general benefits us all as end-users. So yes, a 3rd way to get where we want to be, great!

@castillo4141 Рік тому

As usual, great video and thorough explanation of a complex topic, even for a layman like myself.

@briianhebert 2 роки тому

Thanks for the very informative video!

@russellzauner Рік тому

Sorry I'm late and thanks for this great video. For those interested in knowing what further power they have in their hands, even as an enthusiast/hobbyist, there is a collection of open IP/cores. I don't put any links on comments; even spelling a link (eg; some site _ot or_) seems to get trapped by whatever YT has for autodelete mechanism, so you'll have to search "open IP cores" using whatever your favorite search tool is but I'm not kidding when I'm telling you now that it's a *very* deep rabbithole that is also a bunch more rabbitholes inside that one; make sure to schedule yourself some time or you will be late to whatever else you were planning on doing.

@IAmPattycakes Рік тому

I'm just hoping there are massively parallel RISC-V server chips at some point soon. Web hosting doesn't need crazy fast single core, and is basically implicitly parallel. Getting even half the performance for that workload with a quarter the silicon being used is very reasonable when you see the amount of bloat that's crammed into x86 now that doesn't ever get used in many programs. Most of the software I write would definitely benefit from that, but I'm only a one server kinda guy right now so I don't really drive the market.

@Krieghandt Рік тому

Don't forget, IBM still makes custom Power CPUs. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they move that division to RISC-V, as the M68000 ISA is pretty long in the tooth now.

@lamjeri Рік тому

You're not alone on that. And I think that your wish will come true, also due to the fact that RISC is far less power hungry and produces less heat, which could become a huge money saver for cloud computing in recent future, at least in Europe.

@williamstevenson2649 Рік тому

Excellent! Thanks for explaining all that

@qwkimball 2 роки тому

Irrespective of the perils of any given week, I can always rely on learning something interesting and useful and enjoying the journey each Sunday morning. Thanks for that.

@Doobie3010 Рік тому

I remember the dying days of my Amiga 500+,I seriously considered the Risk-chipped Archemiedes machines.But the IBM AT format stole my heart.Thats why i still find this very interesting.Edit-Risc,even.

@aladdin8623 2 роки тому

That seems to be one of the better videos about RISC-V, which seems more unbiased than the ones from 'gary explains', who seems to be too close to arm. Anyway, congratulations for the good educational quality, please keep up the good work and thank you

@radishpineapple74 Рік тому

Your channel is one of the very few for which I have "rung that bell". A true gem among UKposts channels.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks, most appreciated. :)

@wezichipeta Рік тому

Thank you for this insightful and informative video.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks. :)

@AMDRADEONRUBY 2 роки тому

Nice it's Sunday already have a nice week going to watch while I eat my breakfast

@ExplainingComputers 2 роки тому

Have a great day!

@AMDRADEONRUBY Рік тому

@@ExplainingComputers you too

@christophbugel7160 Рік тому

Thanks for making such great videos! friendly, concise, answering most questions that arise in my mind while listening

@PinakiGupta82Appu 2 роки тому

Your video will give a detailed insight into the implications of choosing a particular ISA for developing products meant to be future safe. Closed ISAs can be a hindrance for critical applications depending on the geopolitical situations and trade restrictions on tech transfer. Governments and corporations will find the RISC-V open-source ISA to be a safe investment and less dependable on tech agreements for critical hardware applications. Happy Sunday Evening!

@davidcolton7167 6 місяців тому

brilliant video so well explained stuff I was a bit confused about!

@ze2411 Рік тому

AMAZINGGGGGGGGGG VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best RV video I have seen yet!

@NeverlandSystemZor Рік тому

I LOVE the idea of a more "open" world and CPU base for moving forward.

@airaction6423 Рік тому

There is nothing open. This is just a marketing strategy. The IP design is still closed source.

@user-yv5bz4qn4t 5 місяців тому

straightforward and to the point, thanks!

@willi4242 Рік тому

Hey Christopher, thank you again for your well researched and inspiring videos! I do also believe, that Risc-V will be "a thing" in the upcoming years. The European Commission has put parts of their hopes into Risc-V (I am thinking about research in Horizon Europe and the EU Chips Act). And since a lot of European countries are more deeply looking into their dependencies ("strategic Autonomy") - Risc-V seems an interesting alternative. Leaves production in Europe as another crucial factor. Keep up your brilliant work of "explaining computers" rather just using them ;-) Greetings from good ol Germany!

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Thanks for this -- and greetings from the UK! :)

@rogerkoh1979 2 роки тому

As it is open-source, I hope for more chips with better design, price, Performace, and battery life. Look how Linux progressed over the years.

@CyReVolt Рік тому

Well, "open source" and Linux are quite different, as that refers to implementation, while RISC-V is a set of specifications. Whether high performance chips will be open is up to their creators implementing them.

@terrydaktyllus1320 Рік тому

@@CyReVolt I'd also argue that (to my understanding at least) CPU chips may not have been "open design" like RISC-V but their specifications have been open enough to allow developers to get their software to work with them. Certainly from a Linux perspective, custom wifi and graphics chips tend to be far more closed in design.

@CyReVolt Рік тому

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Indeed, and the problems arise in the same fashion for BSDs, Illumos, Plan 9, Redox, and all the other operating systems to which documentation is missing due to closed peripherals. The same problem reccours in firmware, which runs with higher privileges, so that a verifiable, auditable implementations is not feasible, like currently on AMD and Intel platforms. Combined with "okay enough" grade quality of vendor implementations, we see lots of problems here and there that make people throw away stuff or degrade the usefulness of their devices.

@another3997 Рік тому

@@terrydaktyllus1320 A Risc-V processor can be completely closed, with no freely available documentation or tool chain. It is entirely up to the designers of a particular CPU based on the Risc-V ISA. They can add whatever proprietary extensions to the chip they want to, and charge what they like for the CPU design. They have no obligation to make that CPU design available to anyone else, just like Apple keep their proprietary ARM designs to themselves. The only "open" aspect of Risc-V is the actual instruction set.

@Anthony-ym6iz 2 роки тому

Really interesting video. Thanks Chris.

@globetrotterdk Рік тому

Excellent explanation. Thank you.

@ArnaudZANETTI Рік тому

Let's note forget about MIPS architecture, found in many Routers / Access Points / NAS. It is currently the third most common architecture (for example implemented in many chinese SoC to avoid ARM licence) even-though it will gradually disappear (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPS_architecture).

@williamhart4896 Рік тому

Was wondering when you were going to give us a walk around risk 5 vrs x86v64 and ARM ,as semi open source and the closed source of the competition cores Isa . thanks professor Chris

@dza1988 11 місяців тому

Thank you, like always delivering the best explanation about computers.

@121Pal Рік тому

…excellent video, Chris, not only for your technical insights but also for your wise geopolitical predictions…

@PS_Tube 2 роки тому

Today's tea time has become RISC-y time. Cool ! PS : Have an amazing week Chris.

@paco3447 Рік тому

Nice. A small clarification, all x86-64 are internally RISC way back since P6 architecture (first Pentium Pro). So it has actually a RISC based micro-ops core (exposed CISC instructions divided into uops then executed through its RISC bare core).

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

I did say in the video that the boundaries are blurry these days . . .

@paco3447 Рік тому

@@ExplainingComputers Yep. No bad pretensions intended. Just to point out anecdotal info.

@tanmoymridha5002 Рік тому

A highly detailed RISCV video. Thank you sir

@avejst Рік тому

Interesting video as always 👍😀

@FujinBlackheart 2 роки тому

I firmly belive that RISC-V will be a strong competitor to the established system when you think how youngh the ISA still is, it already catched up greatly, Alibaba for example made already cores that are very close to what ARM can dish out. And the software side still havent cought up yet, so pretty sure they can quickly outperform current systems if enough companies work together and also dont close everything in.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

Agreed.

@Krieghandt Рік тому

I was going to mention it would need a compiler, but checking shows GNU already has a tool-chain for it.

@BruceHoult Рік тому

@@Krieghandt GCC for RISC-V has existed since the very first work-in-progress specification for RISC-V that Chris showed from 2011. RISC-V changed a lot from then until the public release in 2015, and GCC evolved along with it. LLVM has supported RISC-V since 2019 and is now the most active/preferred compiler for new work. Not only is there a compiler, Fedora and Ubuntu and others have official Linux distros or RISC-V, and have had for several years already.

@jcrobin1991 Рік тому

I do agree it has potentials, but it is definitely not "young". There is a reason why it is called RISC-"V" not RISC-"I"

@BruceHoult Рік тому

@@jcrobin1991 RISC-V has of course benefitted from lessons learned from RISC and RISC-like computers of the past including CDC 6600, Cray, IBM 801/ROMP/POWER, RISC I&II, SPARC, MIPS, ARM, HP-PA, Intel 860 and 960, Motorola 88000, DEC Alpha. However it is a new and different ISA stabilised only in 2015 and furthermore has until very recently been backed only by universities and startups with limited funds. SiFive made the FE310 (32 bit microcontroller) and FU540 (quad core 64 bit Linux) chips and HiFive1 & HiFive Unleashed boards on their first $8 million of funding!

@kayakMike1000 2 роки тому

RISC-V is da bomb. I followed a tutorial and designed my own core. I call it the FROOBIAN core. So... Couple of cool details. SiFive is a company spawned by the researchers who designed the original ISA. The architecture is modular and is broken into several pieces to support different use cases. For example, if you need a simple microcontroller and not much floating point math you probably just need a simple integer core. Need more math? Just add in support for the hardware multiply and divide ISA module. This is just an example, there are around 16 extension modules that can be added to your core. Modular for the win!

@ExplainingComputers 2 роки тому

Thanks for this. The "cool detail" of SiFive being founded by the creators of RISC-V is covered in the video. :)

@kayakMike1000 2 роки тому

@@ExplainingComputers yeah, I started writing that right before you mentioned it.

@kayakMike1000 2 роки тому

@@ExplainingComputers great video btw, thanks!

@Kwales66 Рік тому

Thanks. Very informative.

@perrymcclusky4695 2 роки тому

I find RISC-V a fascinating technology. Looking forward to your next video!

@_Karlsson Рік тому

I really wish RISC-V will succeed. As a programmer I see the biggest problem with free extensibility means having to develop a compiler for each separate brand model instead of developing compilers for each widely accepted standard.

@OscarSommerbo Рік тому

Not really, you would have to develop a separate compiler to take advantage of extended functionality, the point is to have a baseline model (or three) that you can extend, but the extension shouldn't break the baseline compatibility, in theory. At least that is my take on the extensibility of the design.

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

I agree that I don't think extensibility will become a major issue -- it will almost certainly only be used for custom chips applied in custom, dedicated applications (eg in a driverless car or SSD controller). There is no incentive for anybody making a general purpose RISC-V SoC/SoM and computer to deviate from the base specification.

@_Karlsson Рік тому

I hope you both are right. As it is now we already need ~20 versions of every link library and exe just to cover x86 and ARM.

@automateTec 2 роки тому

It is also worth mentioning that RISC is a philosophy that argues that a Reduced Instruction Set can have a performance advantage over CISC.

@kayakMike1000 Рік тому

RISC has a lot of advantages over CISC. CISC requires much more complicated decoder stages required to activate the right circuitry in the execute stage. Instruction execute for seldom used instructions can take up core surface area, making the core bigger. I recall reading that x86 is actually a few CISC cores that operate on similar registers; but instruction decode is hella complex and uses lots of power. With a new design, you can eject all that crufty circuitry.

@kayakMike1000 Рік тому

If I come across that reference, I will try to post it, sorry for not citing the article....

@BGBTech Рік тому

Both RISC (and a sanely designed VLIW) allow for one to implement processors that are both cost-effective and high-performance (where VLIW can leave some work up to the compiler that would otherwise need to be handled by the CPU, at the cost of adding hair to the ISA design and causing processors with different pipeline width to not be binary compatible even if running the same basic ISA). In this case, a superscalar RISC core requires a more complex CPU, but RISC allows the same code to run on a 1-wide and 3-wide machine without recompilation. For a traditional CISC, the core would end up being more complicated and expensive (than either), either requiring partial translation ("micro-ops" in x86 terms), or a longer and more complex pipeline design (such as to deal directly with Reg/Mem operations; unlike the Load/Store approach in most RISCs). But, this it is still not necessarily a binary choice, for example, x86 (with a single memory access per instruction) would still be a lot easier to implement efficiently in hardware than the VAX ISA (with potentially 3 memory or more memory access happening in a single instruction). What if there were a world where VAX had won?... Say, where things like "bar->y=foo->x+(*p++);" could be expressed in a single machine instruction (x86 doesn't even come close to VAX in this area...).

@MultiMidden Рік тому

The story I heard (may or may not be apocryphal) about the development of the ARM instruction set was they at the most commonly used instructions used on the BBC micro's 6502 and basically used implemented those.

@RasheedKhan-cm1my 5 місяців тому

Thanks for sharing knowledge. 👍

@gpTeacher 2 роки тому

Thank you for this great overview. I'm immediately curious about the Arduino UNO form factor.

@momq1434 Рік тому

Im looking forward to the RISC-V RPi alternatives released with affordable prices

@jpwillm5252 2 роки тому

Very interesting explanations! Let's hope that RISC-V will be to hardware what GNU/Linux and BSD are to software...

@DanElgaard9 2 роки тому

Yeah, a RISC-V running full BSD - one can only dream 🙂

@ExplainingComputers Рік тому

BSD is working on it . . . www.openbsd.org/riscv64.html

@hermanwooster8944 Рік тому

Thanks for covering this! I would like to see a new instruction set architecture develop. At least it will make things interesting.

@squidkid2 Рік тому

A very interesting and clear analysis of RISC-V and its potential evolution in the future.

@John.0z Рік тому

I think there is another reason why RISC-V will succeed, and maybe do better then ARM - the licensing cost. The reduction in cost, even the small costs associated with licensing closed architecture, is being looked at as something that can be avoided. This is particularly the case when a manufacturer is producing a lot low-cost devices that use a processor of some kind. So far the two main processors in this space seem to be ARM and MIPS, but there are others.

@sharonwolff1 2 роки тому

I think RISC-5 will become as big as Linux is now. Something that has potential to become bigger than it currently is but because it isn't the existing mainstream thing, always on the sidelines.

@tarmaque 2 роки тому

Linux is hardly on the sidelines. It is widely used on many _many_ things. Things from ATMs to server farms to cloud storage. In fact, Linux is on the vast majority of computing devices in the world, and you probably interact with it every day without knowing it. It just is on a minority of _desktop_ computing devices. The latter is a subject we could discuss for hours, and why it isn't more widespread than it could be.

@FlameRat_YehLon 2 роки тому

@@tarmaque many "high power" embedded devices runs Windows, though... Industrial automation also seems to be pretty dominated by Windows. There's no doubt Linux can do those jobs as well, but Windows kinda took it first and there's no real reason to switch away from it really. Linux got more success on the ARM side for the same reason, though. By the way, if Linux become more successful on desktop most people should be expected to pay for it or get lost in configuration hell to solve simple problems. Probably a bit cheaper than Windows but not by much, and the price advantage might not even stay.

@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 Рік тому

@@tarmaque @tarmaque We don't need to sit here for hours to explain why Linux isn't adopted by most people. Just install Linux to learn why. Making a USB drive and find a third party tool to install a ".iso/.img" file. Entering bios/boot and choose usb. Opening terminal and entering commands. Yeah, good luck getting people who probably don't know how to hold phone cameras horizontally do those things. The websites of alleged most popular distros, Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Linux Mint, aren't even available in languages outside of English so the market is already restricted right at the gate (meanwhile Windows asks language immediately on start). Good luck trying to attract people who aren't well-off, tech-oriented, white boys in western countries to your little club. (as an aside, Fedora is the only site that offers language change option on their website BUT IT'S AT THE ABSOLUTE BOTTOM OF THE SITE) 🤦‍♀️ Windows initial start is completely graphical UI, Windows comes preloaded on machines, Windows has huge amounts of documentation, and everything works right out of the box with installation wizards (and Linux software stores tend to have outdated software looking at you Linux Mint and WINE). Most importantly with Windows you don't deal with Reddit mental cases who lack the social ability to fathom the perspective of a normal person. Linux users are and will continue to be the laughingstock of the tech world until they can understand this and cope. No one cares if industrial applications use Linux because the common person are whom most productive, creative, social, gaming, etc software is made for.

@tarmaque Рік тому

@@FlameRat_YehLon Indeed, I know this. I worked in CNC manufacturing, and most of the machines use some version of Windows. That's because they are essentially desktop machines hooked up to industrial hardware, which is because they require a graphical interface. The most recent machine I ran and programmed ran Windows XP, but the hardware it sent instructions to was actually Linux based. If you opened up the controller it was all industrial, but if you opened up the console it was just a Windows PC. (There was no reason it couldn't run Windows 7, that being the standard when it was manufactured.) Some of the older machines I've run used proprietary operating systems that aren't really either one. They were digital CNC, but in the same way a cheap calculator was. The old Amada machine I ran was so simple it only allowed a grand total of 99 operation steps, which had to include blank steps to bracket programs. (It sucked.)

@tarmaque Рік тому

@@lightly-red-huedmaleindivi6266 Uh... I've been using linux for 20 + years. I'm currently running two MX Linux machines, and typing this on one.

@westsidepimping Рік тому

This is gold. Thank you

@robertlawrence9000 2 роки тому

Nice informative video! Thanks!

@lorderectus1849 2 роки тому

He’s into risqué Voyeurism! With his Arm!

@CodexSan 2 роки тому

Risc V going closed source could be catastrophic in the long run. I'm very supportive of it, As long as it stays mostly open source. Can you imagine? The absolute hell it would be, If, Out of the blue, We had a bunch of (Closed ISAs) CPUs coming out that resembled the complete mess of a CPU that was used in the Sony PlayStation 3??? We STILL can't properly emulate/translate instruction sets of this device... Imagine trying to build compatibility layers/translators for similar situations...

@BruceHoult Рік тому

RISC-V can't go closed source. The specs are already published. The PDFs are out there. A license can't retroactively be added to those specs. With the most recent extensions ratified in November 2021 RISC-V now offers standardised instructions for everything from Vector/SIMD processing (comparable to ARM SVE2), to crypto instructions (SHA, AES), to Hypervisors, to cache management, to bit manipulation such as Population Count or Count Leading Zeros, to half-precision floating point, to processor debug&trace protocols. RISC-V has also been consciously designed to be easy to virtualise, and easy to emulate at high performance.

@kirillholt2329 Рік тому

@@BruceHoult why would they want to go closed source though ?

@BruceHoult Рік тому

@@kirillholt2329 I don't know any reason.

@Avantime Рік тому

@@BruceHoult Being forced to by the US government is one reason. US lawmakers aren't the most tech literate, but they can make laws with impunity that apply retrospectively worldwide, as companies and their bankers are too scared of running afoul of US laws, even if they have no dealings with America. If RISC-V becomes too successful for America's adversaries, expect it to drop a massive bomb that could completely break the open-source community, and wreck havoc around the world.

@BruceHoult Рік тому

@@Avantime drop a massive bomb on *who*, exactly?

@alfcnz Рік тому

You’re awesome! Thanks a bunch! 😊😊😊

@hicoop 5 місяців тому

Awesome video! Always wanted to know about risc5

@destroyer2973 2 роки тому

The MIPS release 6 and Power architectures are also open source, in part thanks to RISC-V.

@BruceHoult Рік тому

MIPS is not. They started a program they *called* open source (but it wasn't really) in May 2019 and cancelled it in October that year. MIPS has since announced their future CPUs will be RISC-V.

@destroyer2973 Рік тому

@@BruceHoult I should have said open standard, sorry for the confusion, you will still have to design your own cores, but the documentation is available for you do so royalty free. You can still design a closed core, but the choice is up to you whether or not to allow others to use it under an open source license. Again, not open source, but an open standard of which there might be open source implementations.

@BruceHoult Рік тому

@@destroyer2973 are you talking about MIPS? You had to request membership of the program, and explain why they should let you in. You weren't allowed to change the ISA. You had to pay MIPS to verify your design. You weren't allowed to publish your design. And then they closed the program after five months with, of course, no one having made a core yet.

@destroyer2973 Рік тому

@@BruceHoult You're right, sorry.