Since the other stuff on the chip is the main obstacle to running open source software like Linux, Coreboot, u-boot or even your own OS on typical ARM SoCs, thi

Since the other stuff on the chip is the main obstacle to running open source software like Linux, Coreboot, u-boot or even your own OS on typical ARM SoCs, this means that these RISC-V chips aren't actually an improvement in this area. Having to reverse-engineer the proprietary, undocumented DRAM controller is basically the same as bringing up (say) one of Allwinner's much cheaper SoCs. (Except Allwinner released the DRAM init code as open source a few years back, so I don't think you even have to do that for most of their SoCs these days.) As it currently stands, I think the $10 quad-core ARM board based around a set top box chip currently sitting on my desk is running a more open software stack than anything available for SiFive's $1000 board. (To be fair, the SiFive board does have sixteen times the RAM.)