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Geopolitics has ensured that RISC-V will be relevant for the foreseeable future. China, Russia, Iran ... and any other country that doesn't want to be locked o

Geopolitics has ensured that RISC-V will be relevant for the foreseeable future. China, Russia, Iran ... and any other country that doesn't want to be locked out of computing by an American embargo, are doubling down on RISCV development. In Russia's case its mostly military hardware applications. In Iran's case its just software. But in China's case its heavily funding projects to bring commercial products to market to replace US-controlled IP on everything from mobile phones to desktop workstations. It will take ten years for these projects to see fruition, but the Chinese state is pouring state-actor level funds into the project through multiple different private and public entities. It's good news for open source hardware development. But bad news for USA and for people with security concerns. I don't know how comfortable I'd be with a Chinese designed CPU, Chinese compilers, and a Chinese kernel ... even if they were all open source.

lucian1900 5y ago
How comfortable do you think the rest of us are with US-designed CPUs and software? I’ll take the country that hasn’t invaded and is still occupying much of the world, I think.
- TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
  It's a personal choice ... but if you study Chinese politics I think you'll find their lack of aggression isn't an orientation, its a historical lack of capability ... which is now changing. The US Empire is corrupt, but its processes of decision making and power are relatively transparent (open elections, senate trials, etc.). The Chinese system is entirely opaque. In a sense, all citizens in China are ultimately completely vulnerable to the whims of the state ... there is no recourse for arbitrary detention, seizure of property, etc. This is a model China seeks to export in the long run ... either directly, or through affiliates. America sucks ... but as people often say about Democracy, its the worst system of governance except all the rest.
  - lucian1900 5y ago
    The US isn’t democratic. Every human on earth is at the whims of US state power. There is no recourse for arbitrary detention (like Guantanamo or the border concentration camps), assassinations, invasions, coups, etc. I’ve studied Chinese politics and have reached the opposite conclusion to you.
    - TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
      I suppose we'll have to disagree, considering that you even know about Guantanomo through US court documents is a reason to doubt your line of thinking.
      - lucian1900 5y ago
        Guantanamo was not public for a long time and any legal proceedings were famously impeded. We didn’t even find out about the torture for a long time. The film The Mauritian portraits this quite well. Abu Ghraib wasn’t made public through courts at all. How many other such places exist and still kept secret for now? The past would suggest there are at least several.
        TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
        America's internal process revealed these things. Its own journalists and its own whistleblower mechanisms. If you lived in America, you would see the huge amount of protests on the streets against the Iraq war and other international adventures. Also, US politicians with significant power regularly speak out against such adventures. This is America's internal control mechanisms. There are no such mechanisms in China. Anyway, there's no point discussing this further. Either you understand this level of nuance, your you inherently believe in the notion that "all countries are equally bad" type philosophy with no regard to how information is brought to light and how a country is constrained.
        lucian1900 5y ago

lucian1900 5y ago

How comfortable do you think the rest of us are with US-designed CPUs and software? I’ll take the country that hasn’t invaded and is still occupying much of the world, I think.

TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
It's a personal choice ... but if you study Chinese politics I think you'll find their lack of aggression isn't an orientation, its a historical lack of capability ... which is now changing. The US Empire is corrupt, but its processes of decision making and power are relatively transparent (open elections, senate trials, etc.). The Chinese system is entirely opaque. In a sense, all citizens in China are ultimately completely vulnerable to the whims of the state ... there is no recourse for arbitrary detention, seizure of property, etc. This is a model China seeks to export in the long run ... either directly, or through affiliates. America sucks ... but as people often say about Democracy, its the worst system of governance except all the rest.
- lucian1900 5y ago
  The US isn’t democratic. Every human on earth is at the whims of US state power. There is no recourse for arbitrary detention (like Guantanamo or the border concentration camps), assassinations, invasions, coups, etc. I’ve studied Chinese politics and have reached the opposite conclusion to you.
  - TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
    I suppose we'll have to disagree, considering that you even know about Guantanomo through US court documents is a reason to doubt your line of thinking.
    - lucian1900 5y ago
      Guantanamo was not public for a long time and any legal proceedings were famously impeded. We didn’t even find out about the torture for a long time. The film The Mauritian portraits this quite well. Abu Ghraib wasn’t made public through courts at all. How many other such places exist and still kept secret for now? The past would suggest there are at least several.
      - TheMagicHorsey 5y ago
        America's internal process revealed these things. Its own journalists and its own whistleblower mechanisms. If you lived in America, you would see the huge amount of protests on the streets against the Iraq war and other international adventures. Also, US politicians with significant power regularly speak out against such adventures. This is America's internal control mechanisms. There are no such mechanisms in China. Anyway, there's no point discussing this further. Either you understand this level of nuance, your you inherently believe in the notion that "all countries are equally bad" type philosophy with no regard to how information is brought to light and how a country is constrained.
        lucian1900 5y ago