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We've had free CPU designs before: 8051 and MIPS. I think RISC-V popularity will just lead to less compatibility.
by usrn 4y ago
We've had free CPU designs before: 8051 and MIPS. I think RISC-V popularity will just lead to less compatibility.
- monocasa 4y agoNeither of those were free designs. 8051s are heavily cloned, but it's not like there's heavily used HDL floating around for free. Additionally the gate count niche of an 8051 is rather constrained. MIPS made a big deal about being open, but at the end of the day that seemed to just mean that they put their sales contacts on the main page. 'Open' in that case meant 'open access for our business partners to make RTL changes with the right signed contract'.