The RISC-V open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) has made significant strides since its introduction in August 2014. According to RISC-V International, it has already been incorporated into more than one billion chips. However, this is just the beginning, as the organisation envisions RISC-V technology being integrated into a staggering 16 billion chips by 2030.
The Enormous Growth By RISC-V
During the ongoing RISC-V Summit, Calista Redmond, the CEO of RISC-V International, presented a slide that projects the adoption of RISC-V to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% in the years to come. Consequently, by 2030, this instruction set architecture is expected to be utilized in 16 billion system-on-chip (SoC) designs, a substantial increase from the current count of around one billion. The actual forecast is attributed to the SHD Group, which plans to release its comprehensive RISC-V report in December.
“We are already in billions of cores around the world, and some analysts have even pointed out that it is getting hard to find any new design starts that do not include RISC-V,” Redmond emphasized. “RISC-V is the most profound technical revolution of our time.”
Presently, RISC-V finds widespread use in microcontrollers, with Qualcomm, for instance, implementing RISC-V in microcontrollers accompanying its mobile system-on-chips. However, RISC-V’s reach is expanding rapidly, with companies like Meta, Intel, Tenstorrent, and Ventana developing RISC-V-based solutions for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Over time, its scope will expand even further, including into the realm of GPUs, as evidenced by Imagination and Venata’s emerging GPU program.
To establish RISC-V-based processors as competitive alternatives to those powered by Arm and x86 architectures, it is imperative to cultivate a more robust software and hardware ecosystem. Evidently, both aspects are progressing swiftly. Currently, RISC-V enjoys support from over 4,000 software development companies globally, and a multitude of motherboards tailored to the needs of software and hardware designers are readily available in the industry. The momentum behind RISC-V paints a promising picture for its continued growth and influence in the tech landscape.
