Heavyweights in the semiconductor industry have joined together to create a new company to accelerate production of products based on the new open-source RISC-V (RISC-five; reduced instruction set computer-V) architecture. Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductor, and Qualcomm Technologies will jointly invest in the new venture, which is headquartered in Germany. The initial focus will be on the automotive sector, but this will expand to include mobile and IoT, they said.
RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. Unlike most other ISA designs, its is provided under royalty-free open-source licenses. Open source operating systems with RISC-V support are available, and the instruction set is supported in several popular software toolchains. A number of companies are offering RISC-V hardware.
A statement said: “The company will be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and establish solutions… At its core, RISC-V encourages innovation, allowing any company to develop cutting-edge, customized hardware based on an open-source instruction set. Further adoption of the RISC-V technology will promote even more diversity in the electronics industry – reducing the barriers to entry for smaller and emergent companies and enabling increased scalability for established companies.”
A bunch of quotes attended the press note, and explained the venture further, as below.
Jens Fabrowsky, executive vice president at Bosch, said: “Bosch is convinced that initiatives promoting the RISC-V open specifications will bring the global mobility market a significant step further. The initiative now planned will greatly help to establish a reliable and efficient EU-based semiconductor ecosystem.”
Peter Schiefer, president of automotive at Infineon, said: “As vehicles become software-defined and dependability requirements increase due to electrification and connectivity, for example, as well as through trends like autonomous driving, there is a general need for standardization and ecosystem compatibility across the industry, with CPUs being a key IP. We are proud to support the establishment of trusted RISC-V based automotive products with this initiative. The knowledge and expertise of leading market players will unleash the full potential of RISC-V in the automotive sector.”
Svein-Egil Nielsen, chief technology officer at Nordic Semiconductor, said: “Nordic Semiconductor is a committed and enthusiastic supporter of the RISC-V initiative and stands ready to drive the project forward. Nordic’s IoT solutions represent the leading edge of low power wireless technology and to retain that position it’s critical we maintain continuous access to efficient and powerful embedded microprocessors. An open collaboration with like-minded companies to continually enhance innovative RISC-V microprocessor IP and ensure a robust and reliable supply of the technology is the ideal answer to this challenge.”
Lars Reger, chief technology officer at NXP, said: “NXP is proud to be part of a new EU-based joint endeavor to pioneer fully certified RISC-V-based IP and architectures, initially for the automotive industry. The creation of a one-stop-shop ecosystem where customers can select turnkey assets will strengthen the adoption of RISC-V across many European industries,. We thank the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg (ARIC) e.V. for their support of this collaboration.”
Ziad Asghar, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm, said: “We are excited to come together with other industry players to drive the expansion of the RISC-V ecosystem through development of next-generation hardware. Qualcomm Technologies has been investing in RISC-V for more than five years and we’ve integrated RISC-V micro-controllers into many of our commercial platforms. We believe RISC-V’s open-source instruction set will increase innovation and has the potential to transform the industry.”
