RISC-V
Also known as: RISC-V ISA, RISC V, RISC-five, open instruction set architecture
RISC-V (pronounced 'risk-five') is an open, royalty-free instruction set architecture, the basic language that software uses to talk to a processor.
Unlike Arm or x86, anyone can design a RISC-V chip without paying licensing fees. While it's often framed as an Arm killer, RISC-V's real impact so far is quieter: it's already inside billions of small controllers, and it's slowly moving up to phones, PCs, and servers.
RISC-V, explained at three levels
At home
Every processor speaks a 'language' of basic commands. Arm and x86 are owned by companies that charge others to use them. RISC-V is like an open language anyone can use for free, so more companies can build their own chips.
At work
RISC-V lets companies design custom processors without paying royalties to Arm or relying on Intel and AMD. It's widely used in small chips inside devices like storage drives, sensors, and wireless controllers.
At home
RISC-V is modular: there's a small base set of instructions, plus optional extensions for things like maths, compression, and vectors. Designers include only what they need, which keeps simple chips small and efficient. That's why RISC-V is popular in tiny embedded processors.
At work
The open specification means companies can build their own cores or license designs from vendors such as SiFive and Andes. The trade-off is the software ecosystem: Arm and x86 have decades of optimized tools, operating systems, and applications. RISC-V software support is growing, especially in Linux, but it's less mature for consumer devices.
At home
An instruction set architecture is a specification, not a chip design. RISC-V being open means the specification is free, but companies can still build proprietary chips on it. In my opinion, that distinction gets lost in the hype: open doesn't automatically mean open-source hardware.
At work
Profiles such as RVA23 define a common set of extensions that operating systems and applications can rely on, addressing fragmentation. Geopolitics also shapes RISC-V: Chinese companies have embraced it as a hedge against export controls, which has prompted debate in the US about restricting collaboration. For hardware teams, RISC-V offers design freedom, but the cost of verification and software support can offset licence savings.
Real-world examples
At home
Marcus took apart an old hard drive for a school project and read that its controller chip used RISC-V. He was surprised that a processor architecture he'd barely heard of was already inside devices he used every day.
At work
Nadia is an engineering lead at a Canadian company building smart agricultural sensors. Her team chose a RISC-V microcontroller because it had the exact features they needed with no royalties, keeping the cost of each sensor low.
How it compares
| feature | RISC-V | Arm | x86 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Open, royalty-free | Licensed from Arm, with royalties | Controlled by Intel and AMD |
| Common uses | Embedded controllers, growing in other areas | Phones, tablets, many laptops and servers | PCs and servers |
| Software ecosystem | Growing | Large | Largest for desktops |
| Customization | High | Limited unless under an architecture licence | Very limited |
RISC-V offers the most freedom; Arm and x86 offer more mature ecosystems.
For analysts
RISC-V is a strategic hedge for hardware companies, not just a cost saving. I'd evaluate it for products where you control the whole software stack, such as embedded devices, before betting on it where third-party software matters.
History & origin
RISC-V began at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010, created by Krste Asanović, Andrew Waterman, Yunsup Lee, and David Patterson, one of the pioneers of RISC design. The RISC-V Foundation was formed in 2015 to steward the specification, and companies such as SiFive emerged to sell RISC-V designs. In 2020, the organization moved to Switzerland and became RISC-V International, partly to reassure members worried about US trade restrictions. Major firms adopted it for embedded uses, with Nvidia, Western Digital, and others shipping RISC-V cores in their products. The RVA23 profile, ratified in 2024, gave software developers a common target for application processors. In my view, RISC-V's openness is both its superpower and its challenge, because fragmentation is always a risk without a single company in charge.