True, but ARM has been pretty liberal with licensing. There is a risk of it falling under US control and thus sanctions against China though, which seems to be the main reason of the current interest in RISC-V.
True, but ARM has been pretty liberal with licensing. There is a risk of it falling under US control and thus sanctions against China though, which seems to be the main reason of the current interest in RISC-V.
3arn0wl@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
Yes - Arm has had to ease up both on licensing fees to smaller companies, and also has granted more flexibility in design, both as a result of RISC-V's popularity. And they certainly didn't want to do the latter!
The really interesting question is : Will RISC-V have gained enough momentum by the time the Nvidia/Arm deal has been decided upon (and probably rejected)? (And was this all a ruse by Nvidia for RISC-V??)
The recently announced extension ratifications help - especially Vector. And China is certainly pushing it, thanks to the tech trade dispute.
But here's the point : There's no real reason for designers not to use RISC-V. They've been teaching RISC-V at top universities for a decade. There's open source software available to design and ratify. There's no licencing costs, and there's even funding available to get designs fabbed.
marmulak@lemmy.ml 2 years ago
Not sure, but if Nvidia can just use RV (R5?) now instead of ARM, why waste money to buy ARM then? The advantage to them I guess would be to form a monopoly, so the acquisition will surely not be allowed.
If it were a ruse I don't see how such a ruse benefits RISC-V... perhaps fear of Nvidia owning ARM will drive others towards RISC-V, but that benefits Nvidia how? Better free designs?