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> possible national security applications I wonder how much of a benefit that would be. To have an entirely separate instruction set and all the hardware / s

> possible national security applications I wonder how much of a benefit that would be. To have an entirely separate instruction set and all the hardware / software that builds upon it that is only really used in your country _sounds_ like it would be a good way to frustrate espionage / hacking to a layman since adversaries lack the expertise. I am sure adversarial agencies would appoint a person or a small team to become experts in this specific technology though so maybe not so much although the costs would be more than for a "common" tech. Interesting theoretical situation to play with though.

kube-system 5y ago
A national security advantage could be a simple as: a foreign nation can’t cut off the supply.
- XorNot 5y ago
  But it also means you can't seek extra supply from outside your borders. In reality this is going to be a hugely limited benefit: to be useful it has to be widely dispersed, probably internationally. Which means everyone is going to wind up with samples in hand, and realistically it closes no exploits (which usually operate higher then architecture level). It's in fact far more likely that some devastating architectural flaws are discovered.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    "hugely limited benefit" Erm, no, independance of supply is the entire point. Multiple nations, such as Iran and Cuba, have seen their economies rekt by US sansctions or embargoes. This is literally priority N1 for any country on bad terms with US, whatever the reasons.
    - XorNot 5y ago
      I meant in regards to going your own way on architecture. In-countrying your chip making just makes sense, but there's no reason not to use an existing architecture that experiences global cooperative development for as long as possible.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Isn't RISC-V a supply merely of freely available information that you only need to download once? There are reasons why cutting of your relationship with ARM is problematic, but RISC-V doesn't care about anything other than the ISA spec

kube-system 5y ago

A national security advantage could be a simple as: a foreign nation can’t cut off the supply.

XorNot 5y ago
But it also means you can't seek extra supply from outside your borders. In reality this is going to be a hugely limited benefit: to be useful it has to be widely dispersed, probably internationally. Which means everyone is going to wind up with samples in hand, and realistically it closes no exploits (which usually operate higher then architecture level). It's in fact far more likely that some devastating architectural flaws are discovered.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  "hugely limited benefit" Erm, no, independance of supply is the entire point. Multiple nations, such as Iran and Cuba, have seen their economies rekt by US sansctions or embargoes. This is literally priority N1 for any country on bad terms with US, whatever the reasons.
  - XorNot 5y ago
    I meant in regards to going your own way on architecture. In-countrying your chip making just makes sense, but there's no reason not to use an existing architecture that experiences global cooperative development for as long as possible.
emteycz 5y ago
Isn't RISC-V a supply merely of freely available information that you only need to download once? There are reasons why cutting of your relationship with ARM is problematic, but RISC-V doesn't care about anything other than the ISA spec