>However, when various implementations are comparable yet different in a hundred little ways, neither is selected against and the problem sprawls. Only RISC-V

>However, when various implementations are comparable yet different in a hundred little ways, neither is selected against and the problem sprawls. Only RISC-V can ratify specs. And yet, hardware implementations are desirable for testing specs before ratification. Chips that have non-standard extensions will run code built for the standard specs that they implement just fine.