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I think Intel would develop extensions and variants on top of RISC-V, and clever techniques for implementing RISC-V, that they would then patent heavily. This

I think Intel would develop extensions and variants on top of RISC-V, and clever techniques for implementing RISC-V, that they would then patent heavily. This would be terrible for everyone else currently having fun developing RISC-V cores, because they would find the next obvious RISC-V-specific improvements that they think of on their journey would tend to be patented, as Intel got there just before. After a few of those, the fear would start to discourage people in the open source world from even trying to make big improvements to RISC-V designs - the same way people without funds steer clear of their own x86 and ARM processor designs just to keep safe, even though patents on 20+ year old designs should be all expired by now.

hajile 5y ago
The core of RISC-V is already out there. It includes all the most critical parts and they aren't likely to be patented. Intel wouldn't own the ISA and be (effectively) the only game in town. If they refused to license at reasonably costs, other companies wouldn't add the feature and it simply wouldn't get much use by developers. This has already happened to some extent with the current duopoly. Patents also cut both ways. Intel hardly has a monopoly on good ideas. For any idea they want to patent, they have to be very sure that one of the myriad other companies, students, and hobbyists haven't already had the same idea too otherwise their patent will simply be invalidated. Finally, if Intel has come up with a good ISA extension and is willing to license it to others for a reasonable cost, I think that's a great boon for everyone.