RISC-V architecture originated from University of California, Berkeley 20 10. At that time, Professor KrsteAsanovi hoped to develop an open source computer system, and did not consider using X86 architecture, because the licensing fee of ARM was too high. So, he formed a team and began to develop his own chip architecture, and finally RISC-V was born.
In the early days, RISC-V architecture was mainly the result of the joint efforts of a group of enthusiasts at Berkeley University. However, from the beginning, RISC-V architecture is open source. Like the open source Linux system, anyone can use and contribute code. You can submit your code to the official organization of RISC-V for identification and maintenance, and become the official code of RISC-V.
As time goes by, more and more people begin to use RISC-V architecture and make contributions to it. In order to better manage and develop RISC-V, the RISC-V Foundation was established, consisting of more than 3,000 enterprises from more than 70 countries, and its headquarters has been moved to Switzerland. It can be said that RISC-V has little connection with the United States except that it originated in the United States. It has become the common property of all mankind and does not belong to any country or individual.
China's attention and investment in RISC-V architecture
Many domestic enterprises attach importance to and invest in RISC-V architecture, which is also an important driving force to promote its development. Alibaba has launched a number of chips based on RISC-V architecture, covering PC, mobile phone, server, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other fields, showing great market potential. In addition, many companies such as ZTE and Huawei are also developing RISC-V chips, and they have realized that RISC-V can replace ARM and X86.
The reason why China enterprises are so optimistic and betting on RISC-V architecture is mainly because of its open source and free features. Compared with other commercial architectures, the code of RISC-V does not need to pay extra license fees, and can be modified and expanded freely while meeting its own needs. This provides a huge innovation space for China enterprises, reduces the cost of chip research and development, and enables China enterprises to respond to market demand more flexibly.