The advantage is not NASA's, but SiFive's, or any other company that wants to make their own chip: they don't have to pay a license. I guess it is NASA's advant

The advantage is not NASA's, but SiFive's, or any other company that wants to make their own chip: they don't have to pay a license. I guess it is NASA's advantage too, because their software shouldn't be tied up with any limited group of license holders. Open ISA is huge. It may not mean open hardware on its own, but it sure as hell opens the door to open hardware in the future. I think there is a chinese CPU in development that is claiming to aim to be the linux of CPUs. Can't remember the name but they were at one of the risc-v conferences recently.