The number of companies creating RISC V implementations is pretty hopeful. There's way more competition here than x64 or ARM, and that could yield some interesting results.
It matters in that it opens up competition and allows fully-open designs, which should keep prices low and products available, but you're right that having fully-open state-of-the-art chips is unlikely to happen any time soon.
in fact, such ISA is only going to fuel more closed ecosystems as it made hundreds of Chinese vendors to join the game for free, they all suddenly got the chance to build their totally closed platforms.
Which makes the whole ecosystem a lot more open. None of those suppliers is going to have the market power to lock you in. You can get it from the lowest cost provider until something higher value comes along.
And if you are a country, nobody can kill your RISC-V ecosystem. Worst case, you have to design your own chips but at least all the software exists and is established. And Ooen Source cores exist and are getting better. They may not be bleeding edge but they could be good enough if push came to shove. The BOOM chip just got vector extensions.
The number of companies creating RISC V implementations is pretty hopeful. There's way more competition here than x64 or ARM, and that could yield some interesting results.
It matters in that it opens up competition and allows fully-open designs, which should keep prices low and products available, but you're right that having fully-open state-of-the-art chips is unlikely to happen any time soon.
exactly.
in fact, such ISA is only going to fuel more closed ecosystems as it made hundreds of Chinese vendors to join the game for free, they all suddenly got the chance to build their totally closed platforms.
Which makes the whole ecosystem a lot more open. None of those suppliers is going to have the market power to lock you in. You can get it from the lowest cost provider until something higher value comes along.
And if you are a country, nobody can kill your RISC-V ecosystem. Worst case, you have to design your own chips but at least all the software exists and is established. And Ooen Source cores exist and are getting better. They may not be bleeding edge but they could be good enough if push came to shove. The BOOM chip just got vector extensions.