A renewed conflict between different computer architectures is unfolding. The origins of this battle trace back to 1980 when Patterson developed RISC and challenged the established Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs), ultimately emerging victorious. Decades later, Patterson and his followers have revitalized RISC for modern times, positioning it against Arm—the very company whose success once bolstered RISC’s legacy.
In response to Patterson’s advancements, Arm issued a paper titled “The Case for Licensed Instruction Sets,” arguing that customers seek tested and reliable ISAs accompanied by a robust “ecosystem,” rather than unproven alternatives. Arm dismissed the idea of overhauling existing systems to accommodate an unestablished ISA as financially impractical.
However, the RISC-V community disagreed. Under the guidance of RISC-V International, they began building their own ecosystem tailored for modern computing needs. Some advocates refer to it as an “open source hardware” initiative, although purists within the community hesitate to use this term, as RISC-V pertains to a hardware-software interface rather than hardware itself. Nonetheless, RISC-V is accessible to anyone globally, empowering individuals to build computers from scratch freely.
Arm’s point regarding the financial demands remains valid; the evolution of RISC-V requires significant investment. Despite this, RISC-V is gaining traction, much as Arm found success in the lower-end markets of the 1990s and 2000s. In the 2010s, RISC-V became favored for specialized devices and automotive chips, presenting a cost-effective alternative to Intel chips or Arm licenses.
In 2015, a team from Berkeley launched a company named SiFive, aiming to develop components based on RISC-V. This move positioned Arm not only as a philosophical rival but a direct competitor.
By the time the conflict had persisted for nearly a decade, tensions were palpable at an industry conference in Santa Clara. While some claimed victory for RISC-V, reports indicated dissatisfaction within Arm. During the event, attendees celebrated news of a disagreement between Arm and Qualcomm, a major client. However, only a single individual at the conference—a demo booth worker—expressed anything positive about Arm, albeit quietly admitting their product used Arm technology.
Within the industry, connections span across various companies; many individuals have worked or collaborated with peers from different organizations. Calista Redmond, a notable attendee who recently transitioned from RISC-V International to Nvidia, had previously spent 12 years at IBM. Patterson himself acknowledges Intel’s role in funding RISC-V’s initial development, highlighting the interconnected nature of the industry. Despite claims from some fringe voices, the relationship between proprietary and open-source technologies has always been intertwined.
