3 ms·

What is the chace of RISC-V becoming and x86 or arm alternative free from binary blobs and (IME|PSP)-like traps?

coldtea 6y ago
Slim. Somebody will have to build from high end designs, spend billions doing so, and those would be the same commercial companies, which (if adopt RISC-V) will add their own proprietary spin. https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631459000258565 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631459000258565 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631470110965760 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631470110965760 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631471188828164 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631471188828164
rjsw 6y ago
The BeagleV [1] looks much like many ARM dev boards. It will probably still have a binary blob for the GPU though, they are proposing to use an Imagination design. [1] https://beagleboard.org/beaglev https://beagleboard.org/beaglev
matthewmacleod 6y ago
Probably minimal. There is nothing preventing an x86 or ARM CPU without these today, and CPU architecture has ~zero impact on the business decision to rely on binary blobs or proprietary system controllers.
- TrueDuality 6y ago
  There is also nothing preventing someone making a hardware RISC-V core from including additional hardware, custom instructions, or proprietary blobs.
Narishma 6y ago
Maybe in a couple of decades.
spamizbad 6y ago
I think RISC-V, without some additional extension(s) and maybe some rework, will have trouble scaling the levels necessary to be competitive performance-wise with smartphone devices or data centers the way ARM v8 is. Erin Shepherd did a good write-up why: https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d9982f7618ef68 https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d99... David Chisnall’s critique is also worth a read: https://lobste.rs/s/icegvf/will_risc_v_revolutionize_computing#c_8wbb6t https://lobste.rs/s/icegvf/will_risc_v_revolutionize_computi... With that said for applications that are sensitive to power or transistor counts it wouldn’t surprise me if it takes over the low to midrange MCU market 10 years from now.
Symmetry 6y ago
In the short to medium turn expect RISC-V to make far deeper inroads against embedded cores where roughly all code is custom than against application processors with their need for binary compatibility and countless optimized libraries.

Slim. Somebody will have to build from high end designs, spend billions doing so, and those would be the same commercial companies, which (if adopt RISC-V) will add their own proprietary spin. https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631459000258565 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631459000258565 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631470110965760 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631470110965760 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631471188828164 https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1366631471188828164

rjsw 6y ago

The BeagleV [1] looks much like many ARM dev boards. It will probably still have a binary blob for the GPU though, they are proposing to use an Imagination design. [1] https://beagleboard.org/beaglev https://beagleboard.org/beaglev

matthewmacleod 6y ago

Probably minimal. There is nothing preventing an x86 or ARM CPU without these today, and CPU architecture has ~zero impact on the business decision to rely on binary blobs or proprietary system controllers.

TrueDuality 6y ago
There is also nothing preventing someone making a hardware RISC-V core from including additional hardware, custom instructions, or proprietary blobs.

Narishma 6y ago

Maybe in a couple of decades.

spamizbad 6y ago

I think RISC-V, without some additional extension(s) and maybe some rework, will have trouble scaling the levels necessary to be competitive performance-wise with smartphone devices or data centers the way ARM v8 is. Erin Shepherd did a good write-up why: https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d9982f7618ef68 https://gist.github.com/erincandescent/8a10eeeea1918ee4f9d99... David Chisnall’s critique is also worth a read: https://lobste.rs/s/icegvf/will_risc_v_revolutionize_computing#c_8wbb6t https://lobste.rs/s/icegvf/will_risc_v_revolutionize_computi... With that said for applications that are sensitive to power or transistor counts it wouldn’t surprise me if it takes over the low to midrange MCU market 10 years from now.

Symmetry 6y ago

In the short to medium turn expect RISC-V to make far deeper inroads against embedded cores where roughly all code is custom than against application processors with their need for binary compatibility and countless optimized libraries.