Lately I’ve been diving down the rabbit hole that is the world of RISC-V.
Today, I read this article on EETimes where it says:
Earlier this week, Intel announced it would join RISC-V International as a premier member. Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will embrace designs built on multiple ISAs in order to compete with foundry giants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung. Intel claims to be the only foundry offering IP optimized for x86, Arm and RISC-V.
And further down the article:
Intel’s embrace of RISC-V means developing an ecosystem of its own. To that end, Intel is partnering with key RISC-V players, including CPU designer SiFive, AI accelerator chip company Esperanto, embedded CPU designer Andes Technology and data center CPU designer Ventana Microsystems. The partners will work with Intel to optimize their designs for Intel’s process technologies.
In an ideal world this would be a real boost for the production of consumer-grade RISC-V CPUs. However, the cynic in me ponders if Intel chiefly wants to maximize profits on x86 architecture for as long as possible and possibly to the extent that it would somehow hamper or derail RISC-V development (thinking embrace, extend, extinguish).
I’m curious what y’alls take on this is? 