Discussion

mcdow: I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years

znpy: unironically, this.i've been hearing about arm computer for almost twenty years and only just recently general-purpose decently-priced arm laptops have been released (qualcomm laptops, the macbook neo).and arm desktop are still not a thing, in practice.

Joker_vD: Well, Apple M1/M2/etc. are, technically, ARMv8, and they're available as desktops.

Joeboy: Also the Acorn Archimedes is, technically, an ARM / RISC desktop.

andai: I think the Surface Laptops (2018?) count, and arguably the previous models (2012+) sorta-kinda count (tablet + keyboard).Side note: It's kinda funny to me that "the keyboard is detachable, the screen is glass and you can touch/write on it" makes it "lesser" than a laptop rather than being an upgrade.But yeah, definitely happy to see more in this space. Now we just need e-Paper laptops to take off as well :)

ninth_ant: This underestimates the will of governments and companies Europe and especially China to reduce their dependency on US-controlled technology.

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stuxnet79: Not my area of expertise but what exactly is the difference between RISC-V and Power PC? Didn't Power-PC get a good run in the 90s and 2000s? Just wondering why there's renewed interest in RISC-like architectures when industry already had a good exploration of that area.

Chyzwar: It is Chinese companies looking for ARM alternative that push this otherwise mediocre ISA.It is possible that ARM based CPUs will start eating x86 market slowly. See snapdragon X2 and upcoming Nvidia CPU. Maybe in 10 years new computers will be ARM based and a lot of IoT will run on risc-5.

aappleby: You're probably already using a RISC-V computer, it's just embedded as a supervisor in some other gadget (or vehicle) you own.

aappleby: Why "mediocre"? I've written production assembly language for a half-dozen different processor architectures and RISC-V is my favorite by far.

Tostino: I hope our complacent companies get a shot of competition.

topspin: "It is Chinese companies looking for ARM alternative"The V is RISC-V represents iteration of the ISA, over the last 46 years, most of which occurred in the US, mainly at Berkeley.

ljhsiung: > Enabling new business modelsThis is true, but only for the bigger players. The nature of hardware still fundamentally favors scale and centralization. Every hyper-scalar eventually gets to a size that developing in-house CPU talent is just straight up better (Qcom and Ventana + Nuvia, Meta and Rivos, Google's been building their own team, Nvidia and Vera-Rubin, God help Microsoft though). This does not bode well for RISC-V companies, who are just being used as a stepping stone. See Anthropic, who does currently license but is rumored to develop their own in-house talent [1].> Extensibility powers technology innovation>> While this flexibility could cause problems for the software ecosystem..."While" is doing some incredible heavy lifting. It is not enough to be able to run Ubuntu, as may be sufficient for embedded applications, but to also be fast. Thusly, there are many hardcoded software optimizations just for a CPU, let alone ARM or x86. For RISC-V? Good luck coding up every permutation of an extension that exists, and even if it's lumped as RVA23, good luck parsing through 100 different "performance optimization manuals" from 100 different companies.> How mature is the software ecosystem?10 years ago, when RISC-V was invented, the founders said 20 years. 10 years later, I say 30 years.I have worked in and on RISC-V chips for a number of years, and while I am still a believer, my estimates just feel like they're getting longer and longer.[1]: https://www.reuters.com/business/anthropic-weighs-building-i...

wg0: Donald Trump might make it five.

IshKebab: I think 10 years is a more realistic estimate. Probably first in servers and Android phones.

wk_end: ARM isn't US controlled, is it? British and also now Japanese since it's owned by SoftBank.Meanwhile, wouldn't China be more heavily invested in Longsoon?

bityard: I already have one! (But it's technically a soldering iron...)

ddtaylor: I stopped listening to what Canonical says. They often get involved in things and disturb the ecosystem then abandon stuff or dig a "not invented here" hole.Unity, Bazaar, Mir, Upstart, Snap, etc.All of them had existing well established projects they attempted to uproot for no purpose other than Canonical wanted more control but they can't actually operate or maintain that control.