RISC-V Chip Tech Emerges as Key Player in Tech War

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What is RISC-V?

1. Introduction to RISC-V

RISC-V, pronounced as “risk-five,” is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) based on a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) design. Unlike traditional closed architectures, RISC-V offers an open and royalty-free standard that allows anyone to design, implement, and customize their microprocessors based on this architecture.

2. The Origins of RISC-V

The roots of RISC-V trace back to the University of California, Berkeley, where researchers and professors initiated the RISC-V project in 2010. The project aimed to create an open-source ISA that would foster innovation and collaboration in the semiconductor industry.

3. Understanding the RISC Philosophy

RISC-V adheres to the fundamental RISC philosophy, which emphasizes simplicity and efficiency in processor design. This philosophy advocates for a smaller set of instructions that can be executed in a single clock cycle, enabling faster and more energy-efficient computing.

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RISC-V is Gradually Taking Center Stage in the Semiconductor Industry

According to Reuters, in the new front of the U.S.-China tech war, the Biden administration is facing pressure from some lawmakers to restrict American companies from developing a chip technology widely used and unrestricted in China. This move could disrupt cross-border cooperation in the global tech industry.

The focal point of the debate is RISC-V, an open-source technology that competes with the expensive proprietary technology of ARM. RISC-V can be a critical component for anything from smartphone chips to high-end artificial intelligence (AI) processors.

Some lawmakers, including Republican House committee chairs Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Mark Warner, cite national security concerns and urge the Biden government to take action on RISC-V.

They argue that China is leveraging the culture of open collaboration among American companies to develop its semiconductor industry, potentially undermining the current U.S. leadership in the chip sector. These statements are seen as efforts to impose restrictions on RISC-V.

Mike Gallagher, chairman of the U.S. House China Task Force, stated in a Reuters report that the Commerce Department should require any American individual or company to obtain an export license before engaging with Chinese entities on RISC-V technology.

The report indicates that this call for regulation of RISC-V is the latest development in the U.S.-China chip technology dispute. Last year, as export restrictions were escalated across the board, the Biden government informed China that restrictions would be updated this month.

Gallagher’s statement to Reuters suggests that China is using RISC-V to bypass U.S. dominance in intellectual property required for chip design, and the U.S. should not support China’s technology transfer strategy that could weaken U.S. export control laws.

He also hopes that the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the department responsible for overseeing export control regulations within the U.S. Department of Commerce, will take action and seek legislation if this goal cannot be achieved.

The report also mentions that RISC-V is a pillar of China’s progress in developing its own chips.

However, the United States and its allies are also interested in this technology. Chip giant Qualcomm is collaborating with some European automakers to develop RISC-V chips, and Google, under Alphabet, has expressed its intention to run the world’s most popular mobile operating system, Android, on RISC-V chips.

Regarding this, Qualcomm declined to comment, and the company’s senior executives stated in August that they believe RISC-V will accelerate chip innovation and change the tech industry. Google has also not responded to requests for comment.

The report points out that if the Biden administration regulates U.S. companies’ participation in RISC-V through legislation, it could complicate cooperation on open technology standards between U.S. and Chinese companies. It could also pose obstacles to China’s pursuit of chip self-sufficiency and efforts in the U.S. and Europe to manufacture cheaper and more universal chips.

Jack Kang, Vice President of Business Development at the RISC-V-based startup company SiFive, believes that restrictions on U.S. companies in the RISC-V sector by the U.S. government would be a significant tragedy, similar to banning work on the Internet. In terms of technology, innovation, business, and employment opportunities, it would be a huge mistake.

Kevin Wolf, an export control lawyer at Akin Gump law firm, says that regulating technology is much more challenging to discuss openly than regulating physical products but is not impossible. Existing chip export regulations may help provide a legal framework for this proposal. Wolf previously served in the Commerce Department during the Obama administration.

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Open-Source Chip Platform Reduces Reliance on Proprietary Technology

The open-source chip design architecture RISC-V is gaining popularity in China as Chinese chip manufacturers strive to enhance their technological capabilities.

RISC-V refers to an instruction set architecture rooted in the principles of Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC). It has been open for free use since its launch in 2010, allowing developers to design chips tailored to their unique requirements. As a result, MIT Technology Review has listed chip design as one of the breakthrough technologies of 2023.

For decades, computer chip design has been expensive and difficult to obtain licenses for. Global chip designers like Intel and ARM have kept their blueprints confidential. This has meant that consumers either had to purchase manufactured chips directly or pay extra for customized designs.

Experts suggest that the increasing popularity of RISC-V may help reduce Chinese companies’ reliance on chip design architectures like x86 and Arm.

“The future of RISC-V is in China, and China’s semiconductor chip industry also needs RISC-V,” said Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the RISC-V China Summit held in Beijing.

Ni stated that China is willing to embrace open-source innovation, collaborate with other countries, and work towards building a robust and thriving RISC-V ecosystem, helping RISC-V become one of the world’s mainstream central processors.

These statements come at a time when Chinese companies and institutions have become significant contributors to the international RISC-V community. In 2022, one billion RISC-V chips were produced globally, with half of them being manufactured in China.

Chinese tech giants such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited are members of RISC-V International, an organization dedicated to promoting the use of chip architecture.

Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International, stated in an interview with China Daily that the organization aims to promote cooperation with Chinese associations, as well as the academic and industrial sectors in China, to help establish a mature RISC-V ecosystem.

In May, the Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled a new high-performance processor chip and a new operating system based on RISC-V.

The chip is named the Xiangshan open-source high-performance RISC-V processor, while the operating system is called Aolai.

Experts say that these technological achievements demonstrate China’s commitment to building an open-source chip ecosystem and have laid out a new blueprint to support its digital economy and promote international cooperation in chip development.

High-performance RISC-V processors can play a crucial role in applications such as autonomous driving, according to Bao Yungang, Chief Scientist at the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip.

Alibaba’s chip division, T-head, introduced its first self-developed RISC-V AI platform on Wednesday. It features deep collaboration between software and hardware, achieving more than an 80% performance improvement compared to traditional solutions and supporting over 170 mainstream AI models.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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