4 ms·

Well, the good news for RISC-V (I say this with half honesty, half sarcasm), is that most of the RISC-V investment is happening in America and China. Their acce

Well, the good news for RISC-V (I say this with half honesty, half sarcasm), is that most of the RISC-V investment is happening in America and China. Their access to venture capital, talented engineers, and a decent economy makes the UK (where ARM's fighting from) look like Mississippi backwaters. ARM is disadvantaged against RISC-V geographically, economically, and politically; and judging by their interest in scare tactics a few years ago, I think they know it. Perfect conditions for a possible quick erosion of their technological lead.

talldayo 2y ago
There's also the fact that ARM has a total of like 2 architecture licensees, and everyone else has to use piss-slow Cortex designs. If there was competition happening between ARM cores it would be a more interesting story, but right now ISA has taken a backseat while OEMs fight over TSMC access.
- gjsman-1000 2y ago
  > has a total of like 2 architecture licensees And that probably only happened because Apple co-founded ARM.
  - brucehoult 2y ago
    That was before the breakup of the USSR, let it go.
- wmf 2y ago
  There's more like a dozen architectural licenses but they're mostly used for server chips that were canceled. The Cortex X925 is getting close to Apple/Nuvia BTW.
throwway120385 2y ago
Yeah I came here to say something similar. This is ARM's game to lose, and they need to remember that their architecture was in the same situation as RISC-V is at some point. The only thing that stops RISC-V right now is that everyone is focused on ARM. If ARM gives their IP users a reason to switch by raising IP costs or making bad architecture decisions then RISC-V will take advantage of that to make inroads. History is full of incumbents that go on to lose their entire market when they get complacent.
alephnerd 2y ago
> makes the UK (where ARM's fighting from) look like Mississippi backwaters Most of ARM's design work is done in the US (Austin), India (Bangalore, Noida), and China (Beijing), though ARM China should basically be treated as a separate company at this point due to corporate shenanigans. That said, in the chip design space (which tends to be concentrated in the US, Israel, India, and China), RISC-V has become much more popular for commodity embedded usecases because of the less restrictive licensing meaning better profit margins, which is allowing fabless chip startups to potentially leap ahead of ARM
panick21_ 2y ago
Europe Supercomputer project is well funded and they are investing quite a bit. Large European industrials are also getting into RISC-V because they are building things like trains that they will have to maintain for 50+ years.

talldayo 2y ago

There's also the fact that ARM has a total of like 2 architecture licensees, and everyone else has to use piss-slow Cortex designs. If there was competition happening between ARM cores it would be a more interesting story, but right now ISA has taken a backseat while OEMs fight over TSMC access.

gjsman-1000 2y ago
> has a total of like 2 architecture licensees And that probably only happened because Apple co-founded ARM.
- brucehoult 2y ago
  That was before the breakup of the USSR, let it go.
wmf 2y ago
There's more like a dozen architectural licenses but they're mostly used for server chips that were canceled. The Cortex X925 is getting close to Apple/Nuvia BTW.

throwway120385 2y ago

Yeah I came here to say something similar. This is ARM's game to lose, and they need to remember that their architecture was in the same situation as RISC-V is at some point. The only thing that stops RISC-V right now is that everyone is focused on ARM. If ARM gives their IP users a reason to switch by raising IP costs or making bad architecture decisions then RISC-V will take advantage of that to make inroads. History is full of incumbents that go on to lose their entire market when they get complacent.

alephnerd 2y ago

> makes the UK (where ARM's fighting from) look like Mississippi backwaters Most of ARM's design work is done in the US (Austin), India (Bangalore, Noida), and China (Beijing), though ARM China should basically be treated as a separate company at this point due to corporate shenanigans. That said, in the chip design space (which tends to be concentrated in the US, Israel, India, and China), RISC-V has become much more popular for commodity embedded usecases because of the less restrictive licensing meaning better profit margins, which is allowing fabless chip startups to potentially leap ahead of ARM

panick21_ 2y ago

Europe Supercomputer project is well funded and they are investing quite a bit. Large European industrials are also getting into RISC-V because they are building things like trains that they will have to maintain for 50+ years.