In the world of computing, our devices use processors built on certain architectures. Most smartphones are built on Arm, new MacBooks are as well, and some Windows laptops are on top of that. However, servers, many computers, and other laptops are built on x86_64, and that's where you'll typically find AMD and Intel processors. Different architectures have different strenghts and weaknesses, and the proliferation of Arm in laptops and smartphones is thanks to its low-power draw. However, a competitor to Arm, known as RISC-V, has been growing over the years, and it's a healthy competitor that we should all be excited about.

4 Open-source, open standard

Anyone can do anything with RISC-V

One of the most exciting aspects of RISC-V is that it's a completely open-source architecture that anyone can modify, adapt, and implement, without any permission from a governing body. While there are concerns around fragmentation as a result, it also means that there are no licensing fees, and anyone can build anything with it. From hobbyist developers to start-ups, RISC-V is an option that anyone can use for free.

Technically, while RISC-V International (the company behind RISC-V) has often billed itself as "open" and "open-source," it's stepped away from calling itself "open-source" and prefers the term "open standard." This is because actual RISC-V chips may be proprietary and closed-source, even though the ISA itself is open-source. What you need to know is that while any company or organization can use the RISC-V ISA for free, actual products might be locked down like x86 or ARM.

3 It's getting support from big companies

Google, Nvidia, Qualcomm to name a few

RISC-V is helping to resolve a steep hurdle for hardware companies, since many companies may want to develop their own ISA to save on the licensing fees, but only a few are operating on the scale required to have even a chance of being profitable (if they can even succeed in matching standard performance and features). When you think about the likes of Google or Samsung, who developer their own chips, they have to pay Arm a fee that ultimately gets passed to consumers.

Because of this licensing fee, many big companies, including Nvidia, Red Hat, Qualcomm, and more are contributing significant engineering resources to the development and maturity of RISC-V. Qualcomm even announced its investment into RISC-V, touting it as an "ideal way to customize computing environments without the high costs of proprietary ISAs." If RISC-V didn't have a future, you know those companies wouldn't be investing into it.

2 It's free

And anyone can use it!

One of the biggest drivers of change is economics, and the lack of a cost associated with RISC-V is a significant needle mover once it reaches feature and performance parity with Arm. When that happens, the seismic shift it can cause in the computing industry could be astronomical. As mentioned, companies are investing in the future of RISC-V, and that's why. Nothing beats free, and companies will look to switch in their droves to something that's cheaper and just as good.

While it will take a long time for that shift to happen, you can bet that when RISC-V processors begin to reach parity with Arm and x86 options, companies will begin to switch. Arm and x86 processors have been in development for years and years, so it's unsurprising that they have an advantage. As time goes on and more companies invest resources into RISC-V, it will improve massively. Only recently did we see the developers of Bod64 get The Witcher 3 and Stray running on a 64-core RISC-V processor, so the performance is getting there.

1 Flexibility and scalability

Tailored for anything from tiny sensors to supercomputers

RISC-V’s flexibility is one of its most interesting features, making it stand out as an adaptable architecture across a litany of usecases. It’s highly modular by design, which means you can start with a simple core and add extensions as needed. Whether you’re working on ultra-low-power devices like sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT) space or building high-performance computing systems for data centers, RISC-V can scale to meet those needs.

Designers can pick and choose only the features and instruction sets they need for their specific application, without having to license a “one-size-fits-all” architecture like Arm or x86. For example, in a small embedded system where power efficiency is critical, a RISC-V chip can be stripped down to include only the most essential features, resulting in significant power savings. Conversely, when it comes to tasks requiring a significant amount of computation, such as AI training or machine learning, companies can integrate more advanced RISC-V extensions.

Engineers can build custom extensions on top of the base architecture without the need for permission from any central authority. This kind of customization, combined with the inherent modularity of RISC-V, enables companies to fine-tune their hardware to match their exact needs, whether they’re building edge devices, mobile processors, or high-end servers.

In a sense, this can also be a downside for RISC-V, and can introduce fragmentation. However, there's a minimum implementation that operating systems or applications can then probe at runtime to find what's available, so in practice, fragmentation likely won't be an issue in the long run.