China’s chip ambitions and RISC-V’s open-source conundrum

The semiconductor industry-centric tensions between China and the United States have a new front: RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture (ISA). Three U.S. lawmakers are persuading the government to introduce new export rules for using RISC-V-based open-source semiconductor designs.

According to a Reuters article, these lawmakers want to restrict U.S. companies from working on a freely available RISC-V technology widely used in China. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House select committee on China, has even proposed that any American person or company must require an export license before engaging on RISC-V technology with an entity in China.

Source: Siemens EDA

For a start, that seems the antithesis of RISC-V technology’s global embrace. It’s worth mentioning that RISC-V development is managed by RISC-V International, a neutral organization that has declared the processor architecture as borderless technology. The Switzerland-based nonprofit organization coordinates efforts among for-profit companies to develop the RISC-V technology.

While there have been no comments from RISC-V International, the potential of RISC-V restrictions for companies in China has sparked concerns within the semiconductor industry circles. Jack Kang, VP of business development at SiFive, a Santa Clara, California-based startup supplying RISC-V processor solutions, said the potential U.S. government restrictions on American companies regarding RISC-V would be a tremendous tragedy.

China’s RISC-V conundrum

China—weighing processor architectures like x86, Arm, MIPS, PowerPC, Alpha, and SPARC for more than a decade—has recently begun to focus on RISC-V technology after several setbacks in building its homegrown chip ecosystem. That’s partly evident from the government funding in RISC-V initiatives. According to local industry reports, China’s top 10 RISC-V startups have raised close to $1.18 billion in funding from venture capital firms.

Then, there are companies like Huawei that consider RISC-V crucial to their chip development endeavors. Around 70 semiconductor outfits in China are members of RISC-V International, trailing behind the EU, which has 87 members, and the United States, which has 77 members. Companies in China are already offering RISC-V processors and boards while eyeing to create full-fledged platforms offering open-source chip designs and EDA tools.

At a time when China is relentlessly maneuvering to build and grow a local semiconductor ecosystem, this new stumbling block could further impact China’s ambitions to develop an indigenous chip industry. On the other hand, this affair to restrict RISC-V technology for companies in China puts its open-source brand and global embrace in a bind.

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