How the open-source standard RISC-V can help to avert future chip crises
Munich, 20 November 2023
The open-source RISC-V instruction set for computer chips can become a game changer for more technological sovereignty, concludes the IMPULSE on RISC-V by acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering. An alternative to the two dominating standards in the industry, RISC-V has the potential to speed up innovation research projects and foster more competition through independent technology development, and therefore to strengthen resilience.
acatech IMPULSE evaluates the open-source standard RISC-V as a catalyst for more competition throughout the entire semiconductor ecosystem, up to chip manufacturing. Its modularity and expandability makes RISC-V a potential standard for participants in highly specialised areas who have been limited in their engineering accomplishments on account of instruction sets with proprietary standards. With RISC-V, they have a tool for the development of disruptive, high-performance and resource-optimised platforms for various systems.
Go directly to the acatech IMPULSE on RISC-V (in German)
acatech President Jan Wörner said: “Strategic sovereignty also requires the reduction of critical dependencies by providing access to several alternatives – and particularly in the chip sector, we have felt just how important this is. What’s more, the open-source standard RISC-V offers new opportunities for research and can become a hotbed for an innovation ecosystem in which developments can mature faster to become competitive innovations.”
Harnessing increased opportunities for chip design
Instruction sets define the communication between a hardware and a software. They are the processor’s language system. Currently, two standards dominate the market: ARM and x86. Both of these standards are proprietary. Engineering companies therefore depend on the issuance of licences – a barrier for all chip-engineering enterprises, particularly for SMEs and start-ups. In the event of trade and technology embargoes, entire industry branches could be limited in their ability to perform, as licences may be revoked and products no longer imported.
But not with RISC-V: users who want to expand or change the chip language do not require licences for their developments. The freely available standard favours the creation of innovation ecosystems, allowing new chip designs to be developed: research institutions, start-ups, SMEs and larger companies can easily work together. The distance between science and business becomes smaller thanks to RISC-V, and geopolitical independencies can grow.
„Due to the open-source instruction set architecture, RISC-V offers new opportunities to develop specialised, high-performance microprocessors. RISC-V also offers new options for research and training thanks to its open standard, it and allows new impulses for product development,” explained RISC-V Project Manager Christoph Kutter, Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Microsystems and Solid State Technologies (EMFT).
Clear recommendations for politics, industry and science
acatech IMPULSE recommends plans for action which target the empowerment of RISC-V. These include investing in RISC-V projects as well as strengthening microelectronics competence and design capability, while supporting the expansion of the entire semiconductor ecosystem at the same time. Required for this is the fine-tuning of existing processes, to promote innovation in light of value creation and unique selling propositions, and the more intensive support of standardisation.
The economic system should analyse the areas of embedded control and special processes, according to IMPULSE, and at the same time advance the ecosystem continually with further development, software tools and trainings: All of these tasks have been taken on by the licence holder to date within the currently dominating standards. When it comes to the open-source RISC-V standard, companies must thus become more independent in this respect.
Its openness and accessibility make RISC-V particularly valuable for training and research. Students can gain hands-on experience early on in the area of chips and chip languages, as well as start up innovation research projects. As it is foreseeable that RISC-V will become established, science should further develop training materials and courses of study on this topic and make these publicly available in the interest of lifelong learning. Since RISC-V innovations are also based within the open-source area, the respective activities of researchers from universities should be appropriately rewarded through KPIs.
Further information
acatech IMPULSE on RISC-V: Potential of an open-source standard for chip engineering (in German)