Comment by camel-cdr

1 year ago

You are aware that hardware takes time to build, tapeout and productise?

On the open-source front, I can right now download a RVA23 supporting RISC-V implementation, simulate the RTL and have it out perform my current Zen1 desktop per cycle in scalar code: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41331786 (see the XiangShanV3 numbers)

RISC-V has existed for over a decade and in that time no one has got close to building a competitive non microcontroller level CPU with it.

How long is this supposed to take?

How long until it is accepted that RISC-V looks like a semiconductor nerd snipe of epic proportion designed to divert energy away from anything that might actually work? If it was not designed for this it is definitely what it has achieved.

  • The name RVA23 might give you a hint around which time the extensions required for high performance implementations to be viable were rougly standardized.

    The absolutely essential bitmanip and vector extensions were just ratified at the end of 2021 and the also quite important vector crypto just in 2023.

    • So it took 10 years to ratify absolutely essential extensions?

      Somehow I suspect in 10 years there will be a new set of extensions promising to solve all your woes.

      Seriously, the way to do this is for someone to just go off and do what it takes to build a good CPU and for the ISA it uses to become the standard. Trying to do this the other way around is asking for trouble, unless sitting in committees for twenty years is actually the whole idea.

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