RISC-V has finally waited for the "gold digging moment"
If someone were to ask about the top three instruction sets globally, perhaps even the security guard at the entrance of a chip company could list them off by heart: X86, Arm, RISC-V.
Compared to the first two architectures, RISC-V, which was "born" in 2010, might seem undeserving of the title "third major instruction set."
It's important to note that the X86 instruction set dominates more than half of the PC processor market and over 95% of the server market, while the Arm instruction set holds more than 99% of the global mobile device market. As a "younger generation" with only 14 years under its belt, one can imagine the market share that RISC-V can command.
However, in a short span of time, RISC-V has managed to break through the ranks and enter the "hunting grounds" of the two major instruction sets. Naturally, RISC-V also has its own advantages.
Like every famous general, RISC-V comes with its own unique set of strengths. For example, Xiang Yu, known for his incredible strength, could lift a tripod with one hand. RISC-V is born with three major strengths: open source, free, and modifiable.
01
RISC-V in the "Sifting of the Sands"
Let's first discuss the world before the advent of RISC-V.
Advertisement
In 1978, Intel created the X86 instruction set and has had absolute control over the evolution of this architecture. X86 has dominated almost all high-performance fields such as computers and servers.To utilize the X86 instruction set, one must not only have the financial means but also possess the necessary qualifications. Over the past 30 years, only AMD and Cyrix (which was later acquired by VIA Technologies, and then VIA sold the business to a Chinese chip company to establish Zhongxin) have managed to secure a ticket to the X86 arena.
The Arm architecture, led by Arm Holdings, differs from X86. Although Arm is responsible for upgrading the architecture, it primarily engages in the business of licensing IP cores. In other words, to use Arm, having money is sufficient. The "qualification" (license) is in the hands of Arm, and as long as the price is right, there are no issues. Since the introduction of the Arm9 in 1997, driven by Apple's A-series chips, an increasing number of mobile products based on Arm's self-developed chips have emerged.
However, a world where one's qualifications can be revoked at any time and participation is forbidden is in need of change.
When the world ties one's hands and feet, there is always a need for someone to break free from the shackles.
In 2010, Professor Krste Asanović from the University of California, Berkeley, decided to develop an open-source computer system that was neither qualified for X86 nor too expensive like Arm. Don't mess with intellectuals; Professor Asanović enlisted David Patterson, and thus the open-source, free, and modifiable RISC-V was born.
The advent of RISC-V also carries a sense of breaking through "shackles." Subsequently, to ensure the open-source nature of RISC-V, the RISC-V Foundation even relocated its headquarters from the United States to the neutral country of Switzerland.
The "famous general" RISC-V, armed with its sharp blade, is making an impact on the market. In 2021, the RISC-V International Foundation had over 300 members, and by 2024, its membership had grown to more than 4,000, an increase of over tenfold. In 2022, the market production of RISC-V processors had reached 10 billion units, with 50% coming from China.
Currently, the internationally renowned open-source community Debian has for the first time officially supported RISC-V as an instruction set architecture. In addition, Google's Android open-source version, AOSP, has also announced official support for RISC-V as a Tier-1 instruction set.
As a new instruction set, only by achieving profitability can RISC-V maintain its enduring vitality. RISC-V has reached the "gold rush" moment, and the leader of this moment is Alibaba's Damo Academy.Golden Rush Moment, Swordless Alliance
Countless domestic and international technology companies and institutions have flocked to the RISC-V track, aspiring to become the next batch of "gold diggers".
In July 2019, Alibaba released the industry's most powerful RISC-V processor at the time, the Xuan Tie 910; in June 2021, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled the high-performance RISC-V processor, Xiangshan; in November 2022, the American chip startup SiFive introduced a 3.4GHz RISC-V processor.
At the same time, governments of India, Pakistan, Russia, and the European Union have all put RISC-V on their agendas, issuing various support policies.
The year 2023 has been a breakthrough year for RISC-V.
Domestically, the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute announced the second generation of the "Xiangshan" (Nanhu) open-source high-performance RISC-V processor core, with performance surpassing ARM A76; Alibaba released its first self-developed RISC-V artificial intelligence multimedia fusion platform, supporting the operation of more than 170 mainstream artificial intelligence models.
Internationally, RISC-V server chip manufacturers Esperanto Technologies and Ventana Micro Systems have launched chips for cloud computing; Meta has also introduced an AI inference chip based on the RISC-V architecture; Intel is collaborating with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to manufacture RISC-V chips for supercomputers.
Only change is constant, and all else is subject to change.
The open-source RISC-V has brought new business models and opportunities.
The large-scale commercialization of RISC-V has always been anticipated within the industry. However, due to the application and research of RISC-V processors in the high-performance computing field still being in the exploratory stage, issues with the software ecosystem, chip, circuit board, and system reliability have not been resolved.How to commercialize has always been a question that the industry is exploring.
When open source and modifiability are seen as the greatest advantages of RISC-V, they also become obstacles to the further development of RISC-V. Although the barrier to entry for developers is lowered, it may lead to more severe fragmentation of the instruction set architecture.
The RISC-V instruction set expanded by merchants is not a standard instruction set, which is prone to fragmentation issues. Without uniformity, the construction of the software ecosystem will lack an anchor, making it difficult for a set of software ecosystems to meet all the requirements of the expanded RISC-V instructions.
To overcome this obstacle, it is necessary to establish an alliance and rely on the cooperation of upstream and downstream companies. This can only be called upon by large companies with industry influence.
Among the 22 senior members of the RISC-V International Foundation, 12 are from China. In the construction of international standards, Alibaba led 13 of the main technical groups and is recognized as the Chinese institution with the greatest input.
At the 2024 Xuan Tie RISC-V Ecology Conference, Alibaba's Damo Academy officially launched the "Wujian Alliance".
Leading enterprises and institutions such as Synopsys, China Telecom Corporation Research Institute, Imagination, Qingdao Haier Technology Co., Ltd., Arteris, and Xinsheng Technology were among the first to join.
Members will closely promote IP collaboration, toolchain optimization, operating system adaptation, solution expansion, and application promotion based on the Xuan Tie processor, continuously reducing the development cost of RISC-V, shortening the time to market for RISC-V products and applications, and allowing terminal manufacturers to find more suitable RISC-V solutions at a faster speed.
For example, based on the "Wujian 600" chip design platform, Imagination and Xuan Tie have achieved a high-performance heterogeneous computing power architecture, producing a batch of high-performance chips; Arteris will cooperate with Xuan Tie to ensure the interoperability of ArterisNcore and FlexNoC on-chip network interconnection IP and SoC automation integration technology with the Xuan Tie RISC-V series of products.
Establishing a new paradigm for RISC-V industry cooperation helps chip companies accelerate the technology transformation process, reduce development costs and risks, and fully explore the business opportunities of RISC-V.Moving towards large-scale commercialization is an essential path for the further growth of RISC-V.
This time, in the gold rush of RISC-V, Xuan Tie aims not only to be a "gold prospector" but also to be the "seller of gold pans." This helps to bring RISC-V one step closer to commercial use.
03
Ecosystem is the key to developing RISC-V
In 2023, CEOs of RISC-V technology companies around the world are discussing one thing: to build an ecosystem for RISC-V.
"Ecosystem" is extremely important for semiconductor architecture. The status of a chip architecture often lies in its "ecosystem": how many companies are willing to use this instruction set.
Traditionally, a company that wants to integrate a chip into its products must first choose a supplier. The supplier is deeply tied to the instruction set architecture and software ecosystem, so once a choice is made, it is difficult to change.
It's similar to how Taobao attracts many buyers, and then buyers are more inclined to shop on Taobao. As the number of buyers increases, Taobao also attracts more and more merchants to set up shop. This makes Taobao's market grow larger and larger. This effect is known as the "two-sided effect."
Building the RISC-V ecosystem follows the same principle. The more complete the RISC-V ecosystem, the more users it attracts, and thus the larger the overall market for RISC-V.
A good ecosystem can bring a positive cycle to the architecture.Arm's ecosystem construction is exceptionally robust. In 2010, a non-profit organization called Linaro was jointly established by Arm, IBM, Samsung, TI, and other manufacturers. This organization collaborates on the development and improvement of open-source Linux software products and development tools, assisting Arm's partners in rapidly launching products based on the Arm architecture.
For new architectures, RISC-V must traverse the same path that Arm has taken. Against the backdrop of RISC-V chips having shipped billions of units, the imperative to perfect the RISC-V ecosystem is more pressing than ever. Over the past few decades, countless instruction sets have fallen by the wayside due to stagnant ecosystem progress, such as MIPS and SPARC.
The thriving development of RISC-V requires global innovation collaboration.
From the chip ecosystem to the basic software ecosystem, and then to the application and terminal ecosystems, the XuanTie from the Alibaba's DAMO Academy is connecting major ecosystem frameworks, enabling developers and partners worldwide to better utilize and develop RISC-V technology.
Last year, the global RISC-V software ecosystem initiative "RISE," launched by 13 companies including Alibaba, Google, and Intel, officially commenced in Brussels, Belgium.
RISE aims to accelerate the construction of the software ecosystem for the new RISC-V architecture and the commercialization of its applications. Members will jointly promote the market adoption of RISC-V processors in areas such as mobile communications, data centers, edge computing, and autonomous driving. Many industry insiders believe that RISE is similar to Linaro.
Alibaba's determination to foster the RISC-V ecosystem is significant.
In 2021, Alibaba directly announced the open-sourcing of four XuanTie series RISC-V processors, including the E902, E906, C906, and C910.
The XuanTie RISC-V series already has over 300 customers and more than 800 licensing numbers, with shipments exceeding 4 billion units, making it the most widely applied domestic CPU IP.
Although the DAMO Academy's open-sourcing of four XuanTie processors implies a loss of revenue from IP core licensing, on the other hand, developers can adapt software and hardware on the open-source foundation, thus promoting the development of the RISC-V ecosystem.Around the XuanTie processor, a thriving RISC-V collaborative innovation ecosystem has begun to take shape.
In five years, the XuanTie RISC-V processor has released 3 series and 9 products, covering various scenarios such as high performance, high energy efficiency, and low power consumption.
At this conference, the Alibaba Damo Academy announced that the XuanTie series will be fully upgraded in the fields of low power consumption, AI acceleration, automotive standards, and security. At the same time, the XuanTie C907 has achieved matrix computation (Matrix) expansion for the first time, providing more options for future AI acceleration computing; the next-generation processor C930 is also expected to be launched in 2024.
In terms of software ecosystem, XuanTie has fully launched the basic software suite—compiler TAC, compilation environment CDK, and deployment tool set HHB, significantly improving the efficiency of the RISC-V development environment and toolchain.
In just a few years, XuanTie has essentially completed full compatibility with international and domestic mainstream operating systems and RISC-V. For example, Android, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, DragonOS, UnionTech OS, openKylin, Skyworth Coolplay system, RTT, and other operating systems, and has been applied in hundreds of mass-produced chips.
In terms of hardware development and toolchain construction, EDA vendors have developed a series of tools for RISC-V simulation, debugging, and verification based on the XuanTie processor, significantly shortening product verification and market launch times, and markedly reducing risks.
The long-term technological accumulation of the XuanTie RISC-V processor is gradually bearing fruit in practical applications.
At the 2024 XuanTie RISC-V Ecosystem Conference, the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences released an open-source laptop based on RISC-V called "RuyiBOOK," equipped with the XuanTie C910 processor. It runs large office software such as DingTalk and Libre Office smoothly on the openEuler operating system.RuyiBOOK has, for the first time, bridged the entire chain from the underlying chip to the operating system to commercial software with RISC-V, and all of it is open source and open to all. Guo Songliu, the person in charge of the RISC-V industry ecosystem at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "We look forward to more developers conducting native RISC-V development based on RuyiBOOK, and together enrich the software application ecosystem of RISC-V."
At last year's XuanTie RISC-V ecosystem conference, Alibaba announced an ecosystem plan. They launched the "RISC-V Academy Program" and "XuanTie Preferred Chips" for chip open community developers and industry partners, respectively, to help build and promote the RISC-V ecosystem and facilitate the implementation of chips.
The XuanTie processor has been widely applied and innovated in fields such as AI, 5G communication, autonomous driving, and finance.
In the power industry, the State Grid Smart Chip Company has developed high-energy-efficient, high-security, and high-reliability AI chips for industrial applications based on the XuanTie processor. These chips can be used in scenarios such as smart patrol of substations and coordinated scheduling of source-network-load storage, fully empowering the construction of digital and intelligent power grids.
In the ICT field, the China Telecom Research Institute has used XuanTie RISC-V to develop new hardware such as cloud desktops and AI edge boxes, helping to create a comprehensive "end-edge-cloud" application.
In the direction of robotics, Yibo Intelligence has promoted RISC-V's first entry into the ROS robotics field, developing a SLAM mapping and obstacle avoidance navigation cart based on the Mlik-VMeles development board with the XuanTie processor.
Runkai Hong has joined forces with the Damo Academy to better leverage the advantages of OpenHarmony's distributed technology applications on XuanTie RISC-V, implementing it in industries such as finance and transportation.
04
Conclusion
A few days ago, the European Union has announced a significant investment in the RISC-V architecture, aiming to achieve independence in semiconductor chips.If the potential is not fully realized, it can be made new with the ancient. Open source has long become a new trend in the development of processor chips. As Zhang Jianfeng, the dean of Alibaba's Damo Academy, said at the meeting, from software to hardware, open source has become the general trend of the digital industry. "Open source is a means, and openness is a mindset; this is the charm of RISC-V," he stated, "It is transparent and keeps pace with the times, allowing everyone to make their own innovative contributions driven by interest."
In the PC industry, Intel has promoted the development of the chip industry through the IDM model coupled with selling chips, but this model requires a lot of resources and billions of dollars in revenue to support such an industry. Moreover, once profits decline, it is not well regarded, which is also why Intel's stock has fallen.
In the smartphone industry, Arm has also adopted a lighter approach, not selling chips but only selling IP, allowing other companies to make chips, which can also drive a larger smartphone industry.
Today, if we use the open-source chip method, where IP is open source and processes are open, and promote technological development through full-link collaboration, continuously advancing technology, it is possible to drive a larger industry.
Zhang Jianfeng stated: "With the surge in new computational demands, RISC-V development is on the cusp of a metamorphosis and is about to enter a period of explosive application. The Damo Academy will continue to increase its investment in RISC-V research and development and build the ecosystem, promoting collaborative innovation among industry upstream and downstream."
Led by the Damo Academy, RISC-V has finally arrived at the "gold rush moment."
If someone were to ask about the top three instruction sets globally, perhaps even the security guard at the entrance of a chip company could list them off by heart: X86, Arm, RISC-V.
Compared to the first two architectures, RISC-V, which was "born" in 2010, might seem undeserving of the title "third major instruction set."
It's important to note that the X86 instruction set dominates more than half of the PC processor market and over 95% of the server market, while the Arm instruction set holds more than 99% of the global mobile device market. As a "younger generation" with only 14 years under its belt, one can imagine the market share that RISC-V can command.
However, in a short span of time, RISC-V has managed to break through the ranks and enter the "hunting grounds" of the two major instruction sets. Naturally, RISC-V also has its own advantages.
Like every famous general, RISC-V comes with its own unique set of strengths. For example, Xiang Yu, known for his incredible strength, could lift a tripod with one hand. RISC-V is born with three major strengths: open source, free, and modifiable.
01
RISC-V in the "Sifting of the Sands"
Let's first discuss the world before the advent of RISC-V.
Advertisement
In 1978, Intel created the X86 instruction set and has had absolute control over the evolution of this architecture. X86 has dominated almost all high-performance fields such as computers and servers.To utilize the X86 instruction set, one must not only have the financial means but also possess the necessary qualifications. Over the past 30 years, only AMD and Cyrix (which was later acquired by VIA Technologies, and then VIA sold the business to a Chinese chip company to establish Zhongxin) have managed to secure a ticket to the X86 arena.
The Arm architecture, led by Arm Holdings, differs from X86. Although Arm is responsible for upgrading the architecture, it primarily engages in the business of licensing IP cores. In other words, to use Arm, having money is sufficient. The "qualification" (license) is in the hands of Arm, and as long as the price is right, there are no issues. Since the introduction of the Arm9 in 1997, driven by Apple's A-series chips, an increasing number of mobile products based on Arm's self-developed chips have emerged.
However, a world where one's qualifications can be revoked at any time and participation is forbidden is in need of change.
When the world ties one's hands and feet, there is always a need for someone to break free from the shackles.
In 2010, Professor Krste Asanović from the University of California, Berkeley, decided to develop an open-source computer system that was neither qualified for X86 nor too expensive like Arm. Don't mess with intellectuals; Professor Asanović enlisted David Patterson, and thus the open-source, free, and modifiable RISC-V was born.
The advent of RISC-V also carries a sense of breaking through "shackles." Subsequently, to ensure the open-source nature of RISC-V, the RISC-V Foundation even relocated its headquarters from the United States to the neutral country of Switzerland.
The "famous general" RISC-V, armed with its sharp blade, is making an impact on the market. In 2021, the RISC-V International Foundation had over 300 members, and by 2024, its membership had grown to more than 4,000, an increase of over tenfold. In 2022, the market production of RISC-V processors had reached 10 billion units, with 50% coming from China.
Currently, the internationally renowned open-source community Debian has for the first time officially supported RISC-V as an instruction set architecture. In addition, Google's Android open-source version, AOSP, has also announced official support for RISC-V as a Tier-1 instruction set.
As a new instruction set, only by achieving profitability can RISC-V maintain its enduring vitality. RISC-V has reached the "gold rush" moment, and the leader of this moment is Alibaba's Damo Academy.Golden Rush Moment, Swordless Alliance
Countless domestic and international technology companies and institutions have flocked to the RISC-V track, aspiring to become the next batch of "gold diggers".
In July 2019, Alibaba released the industry's most powerful RISC-V processor at the time, the Xuan Tie 910; in June 2021, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled the high-performance RISC-V processor, Xiangshan; in November 2022, the American chip startup SiFive introduced a 3.4GHz RISC-V processor.
At the same time, governments of India, Pakistan, Russia, and the European Union have all put RISC-V on their agendas, issuing various support policies.
The year 2023 has been a breakthrough year for RISC-V.
Domestically, the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute announced the second generation of the "Xiangshan" (Nanhu) open-source high-performance RISC-V processor core, with performance surpassing ARM A76; Alibaba released its first self-developed RISC-V artificial intelligence multimedia fusion platform, supporting the operation of more than 170 mainstream artificial intelligence models.
Internationally, RISC-V server chip manufacturers Esperanto Technologies and Ventana Micro Systems have launched chips for cloud computing; Meta has also introduced an AI inference chip based on the RISC-V architecture; Intel is collaborating with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to manufacture RISC-V chips for supercomputers.
Only change is constant, and all else is subject to change.
The open-source RISC-V has brought new business models and opportunities.
The large-scale commercialization of RISC-V has always been anticipated within the industry. However, due to the application and research of RISC-V processors in the high-performance computing field still being in the exploratory stage, issues with the software ecosystem, chip, circuit board, and system reliability have not been resolved.How to commercialize has always been a question that the industry is exploring.
When open source and modifiability are seen as the greatest advantages of RISC-V, they also become obstacles to the further development of RISC-V. Although the barrier to entry for developers is lowered, it may lead to more severe fragmentation of the instruction set architecture.
The RISC-V instruction set expanded by merchants is not a standard instruction set, which is prone to fragmentation issues. Without uniformity, the construction of the software ecosystem will lack an anchor, making it difficult for a set of software ecosystems to meet all the requirements of the expanded RISC-V instructions.
To overcome this obstacle, it is necessary to establish an alliance and rely on the cooperation of upstream and downstream companies. This can only be called upon by large companies with industry influence.
Among the 22 senior members of the RISC-V International Foundation, 12 are from China. In the construction of international standards, Alibaba led 13 of the main technical groups and is recognized as the Chinese institution with the greatest input.
At the 2024 Xuan Tie RISC-V Ecology Conference, Alibaba's Damo Academy officially launched the "Wujian Alliance".
Leading enterprises and institutions such as Synopsys, China Telecom Corporation Research Institute, Imagination, Qingdao Haier Technology Co., Ltd., Arteris, and Xinsheng Technology were among the first to join.
Members will closely promote IP collaboration, toolchain optimization, operating system adaptation, solution expansion, and application promotion based on the Xuan Tie processor, continuously reducing the development cost of RISC-V, shortening the time to market for RISC-V products and applications, and allowing terminal manufacturers to find more suitable RISC-V solutions at a faster speed.
For example, based on the "Wujian 600" chip design platform, Imagination and Xuan Tie have achieved a high-performance heterogeneous computing power architecture, producing a batch of high-performance chips; Arteris will cooperate with Xuan Tie to ensure the interoperability of ArterisNcore and FlexNoC on-chip network interconnection IP and SoC automation integration technology with the Xuan Tie RISC-V series of products.
Establishing a new paradigm for RISC-V industry cooperation helps chip companies accelerate the technology transformation process, reduce development costs and risks, and fully explore the business opportunities of RISC-V.Moving towards large-scale commercialization is an essential path for the further growth of RISC-V.
This time, in the gold rush of RISC-V, Xuan Tie aims not only to be a "gold prospector" but also to be the "seller of gold pans." This helps to bring RISC-V one step closer to commercial use.
03
Ecosystem is the key to developing RISC-V
In 2023, CEOs of RISC-V technology companies around the world are discussing one thing: to build an ecosystem for RISC-V.
"Ecosystem" is extremely important for semiconductor architecture. The status of a chip architecture often lies in its "ecosystem": how many companies are willing to use this instruction set.
Traditionally, a company that wants to integrate a chip into its products must first choose a supplier. The supplier is deeply tied to the instruction set architecture and software ecosystem, so once a choice is made, it is difficult to change.
It's similar to how Taobao attracts many buyers, and then buyers are more inclined to shop on Taobao. As the number of buyers increases, Taobao also attracts more and more merchants to set up shop. This makes Taobao's market grow larger and larger. This effect is known as the "two-sided effect."
Building the RISC-V ecosystem follows the same principle. The more complete the RISC-V ecosystem, the more users it attracts, and thus the larger the overall market for RISC-V.
A good ecosystem can bring a positive cycle to the architecture.Arm's ecosystem construction is exceptionally robust. In 2010, a non-profit organization called Linaro was jointly established by Arm, IBM, Samsung, TI, and other manufacturers. This organization collaborates on the development and improvement of open-source Linux software products and development tools, assisting Arm's partners in rapidly launching products based on the Arm architecture.
For new architectures, RISC-V must traverse the same path that Arm has taken. Against the backdrop of RISC-V chips having shipped billions of units, the imperative to perfect the RISC-V ecosystem is more pressing than ever. Over the past few decades, countless instruction sets have fallen by the wayside due to stagnant ecosystem progress, such as MIPS and SPARC.
The thriving development of RISC-V requires global innovation collaboration.
From the chip ecosystem to the basic software ecosystem, and then to the application and terminal ecosystems, the XuanTie from the Alibaba's DAMO Academy is connecting major ecosystem frameworks, enabling developers and partners worldwide to better utilize and develop RISC-V technology.
Last year, the global RISC-V software ecosystem initiative "RISE," launched by 13 companies including Alibaba, Google, and Intel, officially commenced in Brussels, Belgium.
RISE aims to accelerate the construction of the software ecosystem for the new RISC-V architecture and the commercialization of its applications. Members will jointly promote the market adoption of RISC-V processors in areas such as mobile communications, data centers, edge computing, and autonomous driving. Many industry insiders believe that RISE is similar to Linaro.
Alibaba's determination to foster the RISC-V ecosystem is significant.
In 2021, Alibaba directly announced the open-sourcing of four XuanTie series RISC-V processors, including the E902, E906, C906, and C910.
The XuanTie RISC-V series already has over 300 customers and more than 800 licensing numbers, with shipments exceeding 4 billion units, making it the most widely applied domestic CPU IP.
Although the DAMO Academy's open-sourcing of four XuanTie processors implies a loss of revenue from IP core licensing, on the other hand, developers can adapt software and hardware on the open-source foundation, thus promoting the development of the RISC-V ecosystem.Around the XuanTie processor, a thriving RISC-V collaborative innovation ecosystem has begun to take shape.
In five years, the XuanTie RISC-V processor has released 3 series and 9 products, covering various scenarios such as high performance, high energy efficiency, and low power consumption.
At this conference, the Alibaba Damo Academy announced that the XuanTie series will be fully upgraded in the fields of low power consumption, AI acceleration, automotive standards, and security. At the same time, the XuanTie C907 has achieved matrix computation (Matrix) expansion for the first time, providing more options for future AI acceleration computing; the next-generation processor C930 is also expected to be launched in 2024.
In terms of software ecosystem, XuanTie has fully launched the basic software suite—compiler TAC, compilation environment CDK, and deployment tool set HHB, significantly improving the efficiency of the RISC-V development environment and toolchain.
In just a few years, XuanTie has essentially completed full compatibility with international and domestic mainstream operating systems and RISC-V. For example, Android, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, DragonOS, UnionTech OS, openKylin, Skyworth Coolplay system, RTT, and other operating systems, and has been applied in hundreds of mass-produced chips.
In terms of hardware development and toolchain construction, EDA vendors have developed a series of tools for RISC-V simulation, debugging, and verification based on the XuanTie processor, significantly shortening product verification and market launch times, and markedly reducing risks.
The long-term technological accumulation of the XuanTie RISC-V processor is gradually bearing fruit in practical applications.
At the 2024 XuanTie RISC-V Ecosystem Conference, the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences released an open-source laptop based on RISC-V called "RuyiBOOK," equipped with the XuanTie C910 processor. It runs large office software such as DingTalk and Libre Office smoothly on the openEuler operating system.RuyiBOOK has, for the first time, bridged the entire chain from the underlying chip to the operating system to commercial software with RISC-V, and all of it is open source and open to all. Guo Songliu, the person in charge of the RISC-V industry ecosystem at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "We look forward to more developers conducting native RISC-V development based on RuyiBOOK, and together enrich the software application ecosystem of RISC-V."
At last year's XuanTie RISC-V ecosystem conference, Alibaba announced an ecosystem plan. They launched the "RISC-V Academy Program" and "XuanTie Preferred Chips" for chip open community developers and industry partners, respectively, to help build and promote the RISC-V ecosystem and facilitate the implementation of chips.
The XuanTie processor has been widely applied and innovated in fields such as AI, 5G communication, autonomous driving, and finance.
In the power industry, the State Grid Smart Chip Company has developed high-energy-efficient, high-security, and high-reliability AI chips for industrial applications based on the XuanTie processor. These chips can be used in scenarios such as smart patrol of substations and coordinated scheduling of source-network-load storage, fully empowering the construction of digital and intelligent power grids.
In the ICT field, the China Telecom Research Institute has used XuanTie RISC-V to develop new hardware such as cloud desktops and AI edge boxes, helping to create a comprehensive "end-edge-cloud" application.
In the direction of robotics, Yibo Intelligence has promoted RISC-V's first entry into the ROS robotics field, developing a SLAM mapping and obstacle avoidance navigation cart based on the Mlik-VMeles development board with the XuanTie processor.
Runkai Hong has joined forces with the Damo Academy to better leverage the advantages of OpenHarmony's distributed technology applications on XuanTie RISC-V, implementing it in industries such as finance and transportation.
04
Conclusion
A few days ago, the European Union has announced a significant investment in the RISC-V architecture, aiming to achieve independence in semiconductor chips.If the potential is not fully realized, it can be made new with the ancient. Open source has long become a new trend in the development of processor chips. As Zhang Jianfeng, the dean of Alibaba's Damo Academy, said at the meeting, from software to hardware, open source has become the general trend of the digital industry. "Open source is a means, and openness is a mindset; this is the charm of RISC-V," he stated, "It is transparent and keeps pace with the times, allowing everyone to make their own innovative contributions driven by interest."
In the PC industry, Intel has promoted the development of the chip industry through the IDM model coupled with selling chips, but this model requires a lot of resources and billions of dollars in revenue to support such an industry. Moreover, once profits decline, it is not well regarded, which is also why Intel's stock has fallen.
In the smartphone industry, Arm has also adopted a lighter approach, not selling chips but only selling IP, allowing other companies to make chips, which can also drive a larger smartphone industry.
Today, if we use the open-source chip method, where IP is open source and processes are open, and promote technological development through full-link collaboration, continuously advancing technology, it is possible to drive a larger industry.
Zhang Jianfeng stated: "With the surge in new computational demands, RISC-V development is on the cusp of a metamorphosis and is about to enter a period of explosive application. The Damo Academy will continue to increase its investment in RISC-V research and development and build the ecosystem, promoting collaborative innovation among industry upstream and downstream."
Led by the Damo Academy, RISC-V has finally arrived at the "gold rush moment."