Tencent Technology has joined RISC-V International and is listed in the Premier Members row. Also in that rank are Alibaba, Beijing Open Source Chip Institute, Becoming Capital, Haihe Labs, Huawei, ZTE, Saifang, Sims Computing, and Spreadtrum.
Alibaba and Tencent aim to create new intellectual property for chips based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). This means these vendors may be looking to develop core designs and other silicon building blocks that will serve as the basis for future chips.
RISC-V is considered a safer option than the proprietary Arm ISA – after all, Arm is a British company, and owner SoftBank wants to list it on the U.S. stock exchange.
Previously, Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute and other teams have developed a high-performance RISC-V chip called “Xiangshan”, which is designed to rival Arm technology.
RISC-V International is a non-profit organization that manages the open standard RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), related specifications, and interested party communities. RISC-V combines a modular technology approach with an open, free licensing model so that anyone, anywhere can benefit from RISC-V contributions and the resulting IP. RISC-V enables the community to co-invest in technology, drive future strategic development, create more rapidly, enjoy unprecedented design freedom, and significantly reduce the cost of innovation.
