Comment by OrvalWintermute
9 days ago
RISC-V could completely eat ARM for lunch if they try to jack up fees under the guise of "value extraction", and not through true value creation.
In 2 years from this date, I fully expect the safety critical RISC-V chips like the forthcoming High Performance Spaceflight Computer (HPSC) from Microchip, Inc.[0], and derivatives [1] [2] leveraging SiFive IP[3], and other RISC-V competitors [4] to take a dominant position in Space, Aerospace, Aviation, and potentially other less cost-sensitive industries where RTOS dominate.
This raises a few questions in my mind:
Could that extend to vehicles and other use-cases?
Will we see more derivatives with even higher performance beyond the already announced PolarFire2 designed specifically for terrestrial use?
I don't know how sensitive their overall BOMs are to high priced reliable chips designed for fault tolerance...
I don't know how fast the quality of the mass market chinese RISC-V chips will ascend the perceived quality gap, and expand offerings into newer profiles [5]
Where will the toolchain for RISC-V be on a specific chip basis?
Is Nvidia likely to expand their usage of RISC-V?
[0] https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microprocessors/64-...
[1] https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microprocessors/64-...
[2] https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/microprocessors/64-...
[4] https://www.gaisler.com/products/gr765
[5] https://docs.riscv.org/reference/profiles/rva23/_attachments...
> In 2 years from this date, I fully expect the safety critical RISC-V chips like the forthcoming High Performance Spaceflight Computer (HPSC) from Microchip, Inc.[0], and derivatives [1] [2] leveraging SiFive IP[3], and other RISC-V competitors [4] to take a dominant position in Space, Aerospace, Aviation, and potentially other less cost-sensitive industries where RTOS dominate
They already are in India [0][1], but SiFive helped build a portion of the ecosystem in India as well [2].
I'm sure there are similar applications in China but I'd need help pointing to a specific initiative. I know Tenstorrent is hitching their wagon to China especially after poaching Arm China leadership.
> Could that extend to vehicles and other use-cases
They already are in India [3][4][8] - this is something the US and Indian governments as well as American and Indian VCs and corporations are collaborating on together. One such collaboration has already IPOed [5], seen combat, and begun helping develop capacity within America [6]. And another has recently announced a mega-raise with General Catalyst [7]. RISC-V design is on the roadmap as well in this relationship.
[0] - https://www.iitm.ac.in/happenings/press-releases-and-coverag...
[1] - https://www.isro.gov.in/vikram3201.html
[2] - https://www.sifive.com/blog/sifive-expands-presence-in-india...
[3] - https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20260209VL216/risc-v-automot...
[4] - https://www.mindgrovetech.in/s2401-secure-iot
[5] - https://www.qualcommventures.com/insights/blog/ideaforge-fro...
[6] - https://firstbreach.com/news/first-breach-signs-jv-with-idea...
[7] - https://www.generalcatalyst.com/stories/our-investment-in-ra...
[8] - https://incoresemi.com/
Hi, CEO of Mindgrove here!
Good to see that we're being noticed. But we all still need to deploy (in scale) to make anything worthwhile.
Best of luck Shash! Been following you guys since your IITM days!