#371

When I got these new RISC-V ESP32 boards in my mail, I asked myself: Is this new technology revolutionary as written everywhere? What are the advantages for a typical Maker? Time for a closer look. But pay attention: It will be a rough ride and not for the fainthearted because we will talk about “stacks,” “IP,” “ecosystems,” and a lot about standardization.
If you hang on till the end, you should have enough knowledge to impress your boss. But maybe you will not be happy.
I am a proud Patreon of @GreatScott! , @ElectroBOOM , @Electronoobs , @EEVblog , and others. No Docker, No Microsoft Teams, Zoom
Links:
Jeroen's Video: • Jeroen Domburg - Desig...
00:00 Intro
01:08 Content
01:42 What is RISC-V? / RISC / CISC
03:59 RISC / CISC History
04:57 The Technology Stack
06:39 Standardization and Flexibility
08:53 Most important Learning
09:33 ISA (Chip Architecture)
10:37 Corporate Strategies (why is ARM so successful?)
14:03 RTL, FPGAs, Verification
15:05 The Ecosystem
15:30 Who needs RISC-V?
16:16 Linux as an Example for Open Source development
16:44 Other Open Source Chips and why RISC-V's timing is right
17:10 The Absent
17:33 The Proof (Nvidia bought ARM)
18:51 What is Open Source?
19:46 How to order our custom chip?
20:21 The ESP32-C3
22:10 There is Hope (SpriteTM and Hackaday)
22:41 The Future of RISC-V
23:37 Where to use the ESP32-C3?
24:04 Conclusions
The links above usually are affiliate links that support the channel (no additional cost for you).
Supporting Material and Blog Page: www.sensorsiot.org
Github: www.github.com/sensorsiot
My Patreon Page: / andreasspiess
Discord: / discord
If you want to support the channel, please use the links below to start your shopping. No additional charges for you, but I get a commission (of your purchases the next 24 hours) to buy new stuff for the channel
My Amazon.com shop: www.amazon.com/shop/andreassp...
For Banggood bit.ly/2jAQEf4
For AliExpress: bit.ly/2B0yTLL
For Amazon.de: amzn.to/2r0ZCYI
For Amazon UK: amzn.to/2mxBaJf
For ebay.com: ebay.to/2DuYXBp
profile.php?...
/ spiessa
www.instructables.com/member/...
Please do not try to email me. This communication channel is reserved for my primary job
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases
#no#midroll#ads

[@bm830810]

"If we want flexibility in one level, we have to standardize the level below" Wow, never thought about it this way, great observation.

[@AndreasSpiess]

It is universal and most people, particularly architects do not know it. Very bad...

[@bm830810]

@@AndreasSpiess Your high level view of the world and systems around us is priceless. though some might not think so, this video was very practical.

[@shubhamsen4572]

Metoo

[@kashififtikhar5058]

yes, the ability to explain things in such a relatively simpler way speaks to the experience and overall knowledge of the narrator.

[@PWingert1966]

Can we standardize the microcode level then? 😁

[@sefarkas0]

I love standards, because there are so many to choose from.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am not sure if we agree...

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

As long as they aren't all incompatible with each other! Esp32 working with Arduino development suites is absolutely bonkers.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

It’s an old joke.

[@isilverboy]

Ahahah! :)

[@nexpro6985]

@@AndreasSpiess that's a standard reply. 😁

[@webdeveloperninja9220]

Boss: Where did you get your electronics degree? Me: I got my electronics education from Adreas Spiess's KZbin channel

[@AndreasSpiess]

Boss: Ok. You deserve a big rise ;-)

[@bern047]

From Wiki and Google :)

[@kwinzman]

What is missing is you didn't do a test that shows that you actually payed attention to the videos ;-)

[@AppliedCryogenics]

+bitluni +eevblog +bigclive !!

[@PWingert1966]

Nikola Tesla: Andreas I am your father.......

[@Beatfreak19831]

Yet another great and in depth video. Thank you Andreas!

[@AndreasSpiess]

I am glad you liked it!

[@tonybell1597]

Thanks Andreas, mind blown, I feel I can hold my own in a conversation with colleagues at work now 😀👍

[@AndreasSpiess]

Goal achieved!

[@PhG1961]

Quite a comprehensive and detailed overview. The future looks very interesting with this kind of development. Looking forward to see the next experiments.

[@AndreasSpiess]

We are all interested viewers in this show, I think...

[@michaelangellotti5741]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I knew most of it but you did an excellent job telling the story. Well done.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you liked it!

[@simonkufeld7903]

Thank you so much for keeping us updated on the latest developments in the maker/microcontroller world!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome.

[@readytheeskimo]

Great video! Thank you for starting from first principles and including the business interest side of things. I started my career in semiconductors (pre-silicon verification, architecture, and design). I really enjoy the way you explained and simplified the overall market and motivations. I will gladly point to your videos in the future when friends ask to understand the concepts you presented.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! My intention was to create a comprehensive view. So I am glad you like it.

[@ukaszwos8264]

Happy Birthday! Lots of health and a hundreds years of life! We wish you that your films have the greatest possible reach :) And of course thank you for your creativity! You really help us :)

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@aronhighgrove4100]

hundreds* ;)

[@ukaszwos8264]

@@aronhighgrove4100 thx :)

[@shivamkapoor1827]

He is hundred years old already

[@Serpent10i]

This was incredibly informative! Thank you for all the details and relivent background.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@AbuzarToronto]

One of the best and most practical summaries/overviews I've seen. Good job!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@ellisdeon]

Another great video, thank you. Happy birthday from South Africa

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@diablo1281]

The best analogies I ever heard! Great job! Love your work :)

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@r.in.shibuya]

Hello again from Tokyo Andreas! I felt the same way so we became RISC-V members.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Cool!

[@simpleton6813]

I really appreciate the amount of research and presentation value in this video. Your knowledge and facility to convey complex topics is sublime.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@rjhornsby]

Interesting and informative - have been in the IT industry (mostly Linux-related stuff) for longer than I want to admit, still learned several new things from this video. Your presentation of so much history/material is organized, coherent, and easy to follow. Well done!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your nice words!

[@thedevleon]

Super interesting video, thanks for the clear explanations!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad it was helpful!

[@neithere]

This was far more interesting and useful than I could expect. Thank you so much!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@maxtester8824]

As always useful AND interesting, Andreas! Thanks a bunch for this comprehensive overview!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MegaBarmaglot]

Great video. Btw, happy birthday Andreas!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@4mb127]

Just wanted to say thanks for doing what you're doing, Andreas. You're awesome.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@gillesgonthier4976]

Excellent video to recall history of chips technology, very good job, well done! Thanks a lot Andrea.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you liked it!

[@dragonfly-7]

Grüzi Andreas ! I'm watching your videos in an intermittent kind for some time now and must admit that it always had been fun to listen to your staements. I learnt a lot. But this video is prepared excellently - even 2 years after it was released ! Great job ! Keep on doing like this !

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! The content of this video probably will age well because it is logical and not technological ;-)

[@nowareman5655]

I love your channel... I have learned much from you already.. thanks brother.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM could drive other licensees away, perhaps towards RISC-V. This is because ARM doesn’t allow licensees to make nonstandard changes to the architecture, while it appears Nvidia is looking to do just that. Being the owner of ARM, it will be the only vendor able to do that, which would give it an unfair competitive advantage. That will antagonize the other vendors, and encourage them to look for alternatives.

[@Alperic27]

Sorry ... that is just NOT TRUE as written. ARM has different licenses, which support different types of usage of the ARM core designs. And if you look at what they have been doing in the last year alone, you will see that they have been lowering the entry barrier into making new designs... for eg they have this design start kit that lets a company take a cortex m core as bitstream (can burn it but not alter it) and then make their own custom extensions around it that they can either simulate of burn onto an fpga. This is how the RP2040 PIO was designed. You can buy the fpga board on digikey for 995$ and download the cortex m images for free today. But yes, in comparison an iCE40 board is 60$ and the risc-c core come in xhdl, python or scala code. But companies wanting to do things have always been able to do it... the statement that nvidia ‘will be the only vendor...’ is entirely without merit, but it does soud geat ... fud always does ;-) DISCLAIMER: I am neither pro nor against anything... I just like to give people FACTS rather than my own opinions.That is why I like and respect Andreas’ work so much!

[@animatrix1851]

Yeah if I'm right you can add instructions and such if you buy a costlier license

[@c1ph3rpunk]

@@Alperic27 Nvidia now owns ARM, as licenses expire they’re free to rewrite the rules. If you don’t like the new rules, fine, don’t use the chip. No other options? Meh, Nvidia won’t care. You’re analysis relies on the fact you believe Nvidia will play by the rules. It’s been proven they won’t.

[@Alperic27]

@@c1ph3rpunk well Daren.... sorry, but nvidia DOES NOT own ARM... that IS A FACT... which I invite you to NOT BELIEVE ME ABOUT, and VERIFY YOURSELF. An acquisition of that magnitude is a BIG deal, and the FTC has an equally long and complex review process BEFORE the acquisition can be allowed. So, if you check, you will see that the process has entered phase 2, where nvidia and softbank are required to answer some questions about their intentions and other modalities. If you have checked, you also know that Qualcomm has raised an opposition in multiple jurisdictions against the sell, as well as ... Huawei .. and I think at least another chineese company. So.... ARM has not changed hands yet, and information is more than opinions ;-)

[@Alperic27]

As I thought more about this, I think you may have the causality links all wrong: ARM does not prevent changes. ARM sells licenses that support making changes. They cost a lot of money because 1) ARM wanted to avoid fragmentation 2) this kind of license give access to IP that has cost millions and millions to develop over 30 years... BUT.. more importantly, there is the question of WHO/WHY want to make some changes to this IP? The easiest way to understand that is to look at who makes changes today, or who is jumping early on RISK-V. WD as an eatly adopter: what they want is to have a consistent toolchain to build some highly specialized chips (controllers). So to them, and many others who are doing specialized chips, they dont want to have a complete arm8 or arm9 core, much less all the interconnect to have multiple cores on a single die.... for them the base risc-v core ISA (integer) is plenty... that and the decoding/execution pipeline that goes with it. for these people, a full ARM license is very costly for very little value as they most likely want to remove functionality rather than modify any of it. Of course there are the ones who may want to add some specialised ports to handle some tasks tasks in the hardware... but these people can do it today .. the rp2040 likely did not require a full license for the rpi foundation to design the PIO peripheral. So, to fridge vendors wanting you to be able to manage it from the internet, most ARM cores are overkill.. therefore I believe that the ‘but the license is expensive’ argument is bogus.... if you have ever worked with fpga/xHDL then you may have seen that copying IP from opencores for your own design is not always easy (maybe it is just that I deeply suck at it), so the ‘oh but look, the IP will be reusable accross designs’ seems to me also dubious. the ‘not invented here syndrome’ will likely lead to more ‘yeah momy look i shared my cpu design on github’ than it will to ‘let me reuse this intelligently designed IP core’. much of the opensource code on github is IMHO of bad to deplorable quality, so the same could happen with HW designs that will be filled with statically defined multipliers/divider constants that could make porting any parts a nightmare

[@codigoBinario01]

Excellent review of the state of the question. You show the big picture in this video. Congrats and thanks Mr. Swiss Guy!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Many thanks!

[@martinrcflyer4089]

Wow, this is an awesome video. It’s packed full of insight, including some thoughtful ones concerning industry and company strategy. The video is only 25 minutes long, but I feel us viewers are benefitting from years of experience and knowledge. I just wonder how many hours (even years) you spent in the making of this video. Thank you for sharing. What a gift to the community. Truly Open Source!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your very nice words! Indeed it took nearly my whole life to create this video.

For me the RISC-V based ESP32-C3 is interesting, because for RISC-V there's already an official LLVM backend present, which allows coding in alternate languages like Rust. That's not currently possible on Xtensa, and they seem to have little interest to complete one. (I know there's an official repository, but it moves really slowly).

[@AndreasSpiess]

Is this also the case for the periphery like WiFi ?

​@@AndreasSpiess I'm not familiar with how the WiFi stack operates on the ESP32-C3, but afaik Espressif ported all the necesarry code of their custom FreeRTOS SDK for the RISC-V architecture, and that contains the usual API calls for the WiFi stack. Rust compiles to native through LLVM so as long there's binding for the API calls, it should be possible to access all things similarly. I don't think there's such ESP32-C3 specific Rust bindings at the moment, but it's only a matter of time, and a more skilled person could probably autogenerate that from the C headers. For the RTL8710 there's the freertos_rs crate for similar purposes: polyfractal.com/post/rustl8710/

[@josephsebastian943]

Hope RISC-V gets widely adopted. Great video!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Agreed!

[@Alperic27]

I will ask a stupid question.... what do you think it will allow that cannot be done today? .... .. .... dont get me wrong.. I love to read assembly language.. and understanding how to build my own add-2-then-substract-5 machine instruction was a very ... pointless but exiting experience.... but most people here will only ever program their boards in C or python... so they will NEVER see if they run on a risk-v, mips or arm core.... simple fact. but i love the name risc-v, it sounds much cooler (forget that it just means it was their 5th time defining a new ISA for teaching) you want to truly FEEL empowered today? Learn to program the RP2040 PIO... and do it in C, not in python ;-)

[@josephsebastian943]

@@Alperic27 Understandable. But in the grand scheme of things, widespread adoption will hopefully see more custom Soc being made. For example, there are already many companies working on RISC-V cores for AI workloads. And most of these companies will end writing APIs for them. As an end result, I would hope, that I don't need to buy a Jetson Nano, but rather something much cheaper even if it has 1/10 the performance. Right now there are not much others which can do that. Like your said, most users will still be using C, and that's good IMO, especially for beginners.

[@Alperic27]

@@josephsebastian943 I apologize if my remark may sound ‘antagonistic’, let me assure you it is not my intention... I honnestly think that most people do not understand what risc-v is or means for the future Again I ask: for what tangible benefit? ‘Core’ is a misleading word that covers multiple realities. For eg, the jetson nano soc contains 4 a57 ARM cores, which make it a full blown general purpose cpu. That part has nothing to do at all with the ML part which is made of 128 maxwell cores (these are completely different core from the base risc-v integer core for eg). The maxwell core are not covered in the risc-c modular core IP, and the fact that many companies are building new AI cores will not change that. Burning them into a discrete asic or as part of an soc does not change what they are or how they work... risc-v, mips or anything else has zero influence here. Neither does having an API has anything to do with what an ISA is or does. Another eg: today coral is a dedicated asic that can be programmed with a library or used transparently in a tensorflow model. The only reason why people have not made more asics is that 1) the knowledge is scarce, 2) the manufacturing is expensive... not that people cannot do it, or need to risc-v ISA to be able to finally do it... truly unrelated!! Google chose to package coral either as a complete board with a NXP quad a53 core soc or as a simple usb dongle. Adafruit is also prototyping a spi (think i made a mistake here.. could be I2C) board with the coral asic. Now the intersection with risc-v will at best be that 1) someone will make an ISA extension for ML to expose some low level tensor operators to abstract what the coral asic or the maxwell cores do (via the nvidia libs), or 2) the next generation of coral-like asic may be replaced with SOCs like nvidia did with jetson... but that may actually mean LESS FREEDOM... as the main cpu will be chosen by the soc vendor.... I much prefer to have more coral like solutions where I can even attach it to my Raspberry PI if I want, instead of being limited to use whatever the soc will contain. But yes... there will be another benefit that you have not mentioned: IF people share some ML ISA extensions, then you and I will be able to burn them ourselves onto an ECP5 class fpga alongside a pico-32 or rocket core, and .... and what? .... we will have to wait for someone to also opensource the tensorflow library that will use these new instruction, and more importantly wait for them to be supported in the GCC backend......... .... but it will be fun, when it happens... in a couple years? Until then, tinyml can do a lot of things on a simple arm core.

[@josephsebastian943]

​ @Alperic27 First off, don't worry, I feel like we are having a healthy discussion:) I understand the confusion regarding my use of "core". What I meant is that, in general, more people (who have the knowledge to design custom cores) can create application-driven SOCs; But of course if not for the mass market, it would not make a ton of sense to do that. Companies like Esperanto are working on this kind of stuff (they created a RISC-V based SoC with 1000+ cores targeted towards ML workload for server-side application). I agree that the coral is a good platform, and deserves more recognition (I am planning on getting one of those Coral Modules/ dev board for some vision-based projects). Right now, TensorFlow (Lite) Micro is still a work in progress; last I checked they are still porting most of the operations from TensorFlow Lite. Hopefully, we get a standalone TensorFlow package for Microcontrollers. TBH it seems that you know much more about these things than me; I am more of an applications person who doesn't have to care what ISA it is using. Nevertheless, it is exciting to see some competition for ARM.

[@jimvonmoon]

Great video, very informative and insightful. Thanks!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@avejst]

Great video as always 👍 Thanks for sharing your knowledge to all of us 👍😊

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

[@anthonvanderneut]

12:44 I always thought ARM was build out from Acorn ( producers of the BBC Micro and Acorn Archimedes) and that Apple got interested in RISC much later.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are right. I had to leave that out (as many other things)

[@pinealservo]

The original ARM architecture was created by Acorn as the "Acorn RISC Machine"; they did a couple versions on their own and then spun out the processor design team as a joint venture with Apple and VLSI Technology as Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. in 1990. So, Acorn, Apple, and VLSI all owned some share of the original ARM spin-out business. Apple was interested in using the architecture as the CPU in the Newton. In 1998, the company went public on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ with a name change as ARM Ltd. They remained an independent company until purchased by SoftBank in 2016, and in Sept 2020 Nvidia announced plans to purchase them from SoftBank, though that's not yet finalized.

[@iwbnwif]

There was also a period of Acorn ownership by Olivetti - best known as a dot matrix printer manufacturer I think. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember ARM IP was not included in the Olivetti deal though.

[@pinealservo]

@@iwbnwif Olivetti was originally a typewriter maker, but they got involved with computers early on and made one of the first transistorized mainframes. Adriano Olivetti, the son of the founder of the Olivetti company, created the semiconductor foundry SGS to make reliable diodes and transistors for Olivetti's mainframes. SGS later merged with Thompson Semiconductors to form the company we now know as STMicroelectronics!

[@pinealservo]

I think it's worth noting that pretty much no semiconductor manufacturer uses a single ISA across their whole product line. The Maker community tends to have a somewhat narrow view of the world of CPUs and MCUs based on what's in PCs, powerful consumer gadgets like phones, and things that have been associated with some Open Source projects before. This is for pretty good reasons; you tend to have to pay a lot of money for development tools outside this little slice of the processor world, and they're marketed to specific kinds of companies. But they make up really significant parts of the whole semiconductor ecosystem, so you have to be careful about assuming the importance of one ISA family like ARM even if it's completely dominating the Maker-visible parts of the semiconductor world right now. RISC-V definitely has the potential to eat into the share of the market that ARM currently dominates, but as you noted, the ISA itself is only a very tiny part of the picture. ARM provides not just an ISA, but several reference design implementations of it, a number of bus architecture designs to connect various kinds of peripherals, a line of GPU designs, etc. This stuff is very mature and very well supported with 3rd party hardware IP and software. It's going to continue to dominate in parts that are meant for end-user programming for a while! RISC-V is going to first take over where companies need CPU cores to run the internals of some in-house hardware design. You can see this from the interest shown by Seagate, Western Digital, Nvidia, etc. It's going to run inside the *peripherals* of computers first, where users mostly won't even be aware that there's a CPU involved at all. I think it might also stand a chance of being relevant to "hyperscaler" data center hardware, where PC-born bus architecture standards are in place already and there's a ton of cash to burn on long-term projects that'll result in cutting out ARM license costs in the long run, and the software stacks are internally-maintained by armies of programmers. I can also see Apple looking at RISC-V for future gadgets; cutting ARM license fees out of products where possible seems like a very Apple thing to do. Espressif choosing RISC-V for its ESP8266-replacement follows along these same lines; if you remember when the ESP8266 first hit the Maker scene, it wasn't really meant to be user-programmable; it was just a super-cheap WiFi chip you could hook up to an Ardunio via serial and control via AT commands. A lot of radio chips are designed like this; they take care of some layers of the radio protocol on their own, and you communicate with them over some serial bus from a more powerful MCU. Their choice of a weird Tensilica CPU architecture doesn't really hurt anything if they're the only ones coding for it, and switching to RISC-V makes it even more accessible now that Makers have exposed the usefulness of the chips when loaded with custom firmware. Don't think for a minute that STMicroelectronics is wedded to ARM, or that they won't embrace RISC-V if they see a benefit to it. They embraced some odd architectures in the past, and they still have a sizable line of 8-bit STM-8 and automotive Power MCUs. There may not end up being a reason, but I wouldn't be surprised either way.

[@AndreasSpiess]

I agree with your statements. And I am far from saying that ARM is dead. I am too old and saw many such wars. I tried to give an update from today's point of view and hope, I di not do too much prediction for the future.

[@BlueyMcPhluey]

truly fascinating video, I came looking for a single piece of information and left with a fresh new perspective on the world -- very nice

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I tried to use this example to explain a few generally useful concepts.

[@newburypi]

Just want to tell you that I quite appreciate your detailed reviews of these new devices. They simplify the job of selecting appropriate processors and sensors.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@simoncollins6650]

What a great summary. I think this should be compulsory viewing for engineers at university as not only does give a great statement on RISK 5 but a history lesson as well. A Brilliant episode. Thank you. Simon

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! This history is part of my life...

[@RanjeetSingh-nr5sg]

Very nice quote: Standardization on lower level, flexibility on higher level. Hats off sir

[@AndreasSpiess]

This is very important. I suggest you never forget it!

[@RanjeetSingh-nr5sg]

@@AndreasSpiess 🙏 I'm from India and huge fan of your work sir. 🙏

[@pfabiszewski]

Awesome! So much knowledge so nicely provided. Thanks!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@egironyt]

Andreas, this video was more fun than 3 movies back to back! Congrats 🎉

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-) Thank you!

[@albygnigni]

Thanks for the in-depth video! I think that some maker companies like sipeed and seeed are doing a great job in pushing riscv for the maker market

[@AndreasSpiess]

We will see if they will deliver a Arduino compatible environment. Otherwise it will be hard for them in the Maker Market, I think.

[@albygnigni]

@@AndreasSpiess most of them are pushing for micropython

[@AndreasSpiess]

I made a video about MicroPython 2 years ago. There you see my position. But you can also reads the comments. You do not find another MicroPython video on this channel since :-( But with the appearance of Pi Pico it might change...

[@nowareman5655]

Never enough open source software let alone hardware. COOL.

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@portblock]

in all honesty, This is one of the best descriptions in the amount of time you spent from the A to Z you covered!!! great distillation.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@amitdeshpande9863]

Many many happy returns of the day Andreas... Keep inspiring us with many more such videos...

[@AndreasSpiess]

I will!

[@BaronVonBiffo]

Happy birthday from Ireland (where we drive on the correct side of the road ;-)).

[@AndreasDelleske]

You are also on the correct side of the EU border :)

[@BaronVonBiffo]

@@AndreasDelleske :-)

[@AndreasSpiess]

@BaronVonBiffo Thank you!

[@headbanger1428]

That was amazing coverage! You're always awesome Mr. Spiess! I have lots to consider now. My stomach turned when I heard Nvidia bought ARM. I didn't see how that was good for anyone except Nvidia, if it's even good for them in the long-run to survive the blowback. Many IT I know are buying up AMD because they perceive Nvidia to start bullying more, and they wish to stay flexible.

[@AndreasSpiess]

The deals seems not done yet. We will see what happens...

[@jvgorkum]

even with the disclaimer at the start i found this explainer good and helpful -- thank you.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You're welcome!

[@brainfoolong]

Never watched such a dry thematic with so much joy. Great explanation, nice voice, good presentation. Keep up the good work.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

As a teen, many years ago, I along with two other friends were avid photography fans. We each bought SLR cameras ... but different brands. I had a Pentax, one friend had a Nikon, and the other a Canon. We often spent hours upon hours, as young people do, debating the merits of one system vs the other. But in truth, functionally these cameras were virtually identical. Except of course, they were completely incompatible with each other. Nikon lenses, filters etc. fit only Nikon cameras etc. There were other camera companies as well, which were similarly incompatible. They all deliberately avoided any standard ... presumably to force customers to buy only their products. Then Tamron came along, introducing the t-mount and a whole series of 'really great' lenses, which could be universally fit on any of these cameras, simply by switching inexpensive t-mounts. Tamron came into existence and thrived, by exploiting the lack of standardization in the camera industry. ... and so it continues.

[@AndreasSpiess]

A very good example how non-standard things can destroy value. You three probably only needed one particular good lens. Like that, non of you had one. But you had three very similar sets for the same price...

[@TalpaDK]

Uhmm sweet sweet vendor lock-in.

[@ohgosh5892]

@@AndreasSpiess The problem with lenses and optics is that most coupling rings do not permit focus out to infinity. The Tamron improvement was making the lense infinity available using their flexible lenses. Exit barrier is the lock-in mechanism.

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

@@AndreasSpiess I just re-watched your video and have a few more comments. You made the point that RISC-V is a competitor to ARM. I think there's another reason RISC-V will soon take off. The USA seems determined to deny China access to technology, presumably to protect American IP and security concerns. It's not a simple question of royalties, China may not have access to ARM at all. This is forcing them to seek alternatives, and RISC-V is an obvious solution. By denying access, the USA may inadvertently unleash a flood of cheap alternatives to the market, which could come back and bite them. Forcing your opponents to innovate, may have unintended consequences. For the rest of us however, this may be the beginning of a huge opportunity. For the past 2 weeks I've been tinkering with some ESP32-C3 modules which I recently bought on AliExpress for around CAD$3 each. My goal was to set up an environment for RISC-V assembler programming, including hardware debugging. I've done this on Eclipse and can tell you that it works great, especially since the ESP32-C3 chip includes an onboard hardware JTAG debugger (super easy to use.) And ... as you suggest, there is also a LOT of additional functionality on these chips besides just the open source RISC-V ISA. Setting up the environment is not for beginners, but others have done it, and there is a fair amount of information available for those wanting to try. For beginners, these are still very powerful and super affordable boards, which are fully supported on Arduino etc. My point is, 'now' might be a real good time to start embracing RISC-V.

[@nowareman5655]

I definitely desire to develope and encourage others to create exclusive alt competing wireless Internet and peer to peer mesh networks.

[@mrksaccount123]

Extremely wonderfully explained Just the correct level of simplification!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@TednTin]

I really love this video. Has explained in a systematic manner with basics. Edit: Can't imagine the amount of research needed for presenting this complex of a topic so appetizing.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you like it! It took my whole business life to get all the info ;-)

[@mahudson3547]

A very concise and interesting analysis. Thank you. I suspect greed will continue to distort the utopian solution?

[@AndreasSpiess]

Unfortunately it is not easy to distinguish between "good business" and "greed". At least not for me...

[@efimovv]

@@AndreasSpiess not sure how to translate correctly to English... but once I hear great way to distinguish: great businessman is always immoral beast. If you see businessman who is good man, probably he is bad businessman...

[@martinger327]

An important issue for RISC-V is the fact, that chinese companies have to get independant from American-owned IP. And this is an issue for European companies and countries as well, as it might become a topic in trade wars and a subject of manipulation of NSA and friends. Thus it is quite a good idea to become somewhat independant from American-owned IP at least in critical infrastructures.

[@ciano5475]

Well, they can develop their own IP based on RiscV ISA without paying anyone.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Global politics also can have an influence, I agree.

[@claudiomoles]

Very good analysis of what is going on behind the curtains, makers are always so deep involved in their projects that they so not know what is coming from where. It is very difficult to find all these information in one place like your video and surely this will help makers to make decisions if/when they want to go for business. thanks for the deliting "nerd" videos I watch every sunday morning.!

[@AndreasSpiess]

This story is part of my life...

[@danstahlberg]

Very interesting and instructive! Thank you Andreas!

[@AndreasSpiess]

My pleasure!

[@khushbooamin539]

Loved your infotertenmaint.... Also loved your way of simplifying it

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you liked it

[@nikolaradakovic5050]

what a precise :) and clear explanation, not fluff straight to the point, echte Schweizer

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@stefanosstamatiadis740]

Great and in depth video. Kudos!!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@ricardoislasruiz3186]

I just discovered your channel and I cannot stop watching your videos! Excellent!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Welcome aboard the channel!

[@ricardoislasruiz3186]

@@AndreasSpiess thank you so much! I have not worked with microcontrollers since a lot of time and yesterday with you videos I discovered the ESP32 familiy OMG! 😍 it is beautiful!

[@joehopfield]

I graduated math/computer science at UCLA in 1981. At that time there actually *were* multiple architectures and diverse ecosystems. The curriculum *never* discussed economics or how engineers fit into ecosystems. This huge blind-spot helped monopolies like ibm/intel/microsoft crush creativity. Thank you for your always excellent content.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome! BTW: I added a Business Administration PhD to my EE training precisely because of what you describe. And I never regretted ;-)

[@hassinayaz7310]

No one else would have explained it better , thanks 🙏 a ton

[@AndreasSpiess]

Very nice. Thank you!

[@grepthis2000]

Excellent presentation and very informative. Thank you.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@programorprogrammed]

I loved that chart (3:36) of all the Arm ISA levels, that's going in the collection. Thanks! Wow this was great video.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@billfield8300]

Thanks for the great lecture. I feel like I just got an introductory lesson for a computer engineering degree for free. Very interesting and informative. And apparently it is your birthday. Congratulations!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad to see you back! Thank you for your wishes.

[@PRX5]

Very, VERY well done ! A top illustration of "Gesunder Menschenverstand" and how simple the world can become when you have learned how to use common sence.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you! I would add a part "abstraction" to the common sense ;-)

[@Uncle-Duncan-Shack]

Very interesting video, going to be interesting to see how this market changes over the next few years. To stay in business these days you have to deliver value (Yes, more than just offer), which means providing the customers with the product and service which works for them. That's a mouthful right there. Thanks for the awesome show which I look forward to on Sunday afternoons. Best regards, South Africa

[@AndreasSpiess]

I agree with the fact that you have to deliver value to your customers!

[@tomwilliam5118]

What an excellent video thank you for for producing it

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jeffchen8460]

insightful observation! thanks for the video

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you liked it!

[@tubelins]

Excellent video. It could be a graduation class!! Congratulation on the organization of the content and brilliant clear definition and explanation of such important concepts!!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you liked it!

[@YandiBanyu]

Very well made video. Well done!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you very much!

[@useyourbrain2022]

I learned a lot today! and understand the reason of many things that I did not understand before

[@AndreasSpiess]

This was my goal. Glad it worked.

[@pablovicentico]

Thank you Andreas; excellent information and extremely clear.

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@lammingmik]

Andreas: Excellent. Answered all my most pressing questions. Well done as usual.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@MrWahjudi]

Its really very useful information. I always watch your video and every information in your video is useful for me. Thank You

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you like my videos!

[@FrankGraffagnino]

great video. thanks for the thorough explanation!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@GeorgeLeite]

Brings me back. I worked on Unix compilers from 88 to 95. I worked on every RISC chip mentioned, plus Intel and Motorola CISC. You covered it very well.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@malteplath]

Excellent! I really appreciate the historical background (even if very subjective and abbreviated) and the effort you put into explaining the economic context.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ragohy]

Very good and deep explanation. Thank you...

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@frollard]

I learned a lot. Thank you very much for sharing!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@olafschermann1592]

Great content, thanks for explaining!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@jcamargo2005]

Thanks for the high level view on standardization

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

A difficult subject to cover. Very well explained. Thanks!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jamesdinsmore9022]

Thank you Professor! Very enlightening.

[@AndreasSpiess]

:-)

[@neur303]

Thanks for bringing this to a broader audience and clear explanation. RISC-V hopefully will bring more flexibility to all of us. There is hope 👍

[@AndreasSpiess]

Agreed!

[@nsknyc]

Andreas, this 'diluted' video was absolutely fantastic. Easily digestible. Thank you sharing this.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@papaibrahimathiaw8627]

Very good content . Thanks a lot !

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@juancarlosreyesandrade8971]

Nicely explained, thanks!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You're welcome!

[@abpccpba]

Andreas; Great presentation. I had no idea how complex this silicon world is.

[@AndreasSpiess]

And this was only the tip of the iceberg ;-)

[@bertbrecht7540]

You save me a lot of time Andreas. I was planning on investing much time in purchasing a RISC-5 board and understanding it as best I could. I will spend my time else ware. I learned so much.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad I saved your time! BTW: Nice name you have ;-)

[@ArturoLopezPadilla]

Impressive. Great video. Thank you.

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Daniel_Lemire]

I’m a little behind on your content, but I get to it eventually. Thanks for making such great content Andreas. I really appreciate your detailed analysis and it was interesting and useful!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you for your kind feedback!

[@timobreumelhof88]

very well explained, thank you!

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are welcome!

[@lucsteffens]

Thx for the very clear info!

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@TexSweden]

Great walk through history and explaining computer architectures =) makes me a bit nostalgic =)

[@AndreasSpiess]

This video is also a part of my life...

[@HannesMrg]

Wow, thanks for the video, there really is a LOT of information in there =)

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MJRoBot_MarceloRovai]

Thanks a lot, Maestro! One of the advantages of living in the south of the world, is that I can wake-up early on Sundays and have my coffee ☕️ following this fantastic channel. Today was a must! Greetings 🖖 from 🇨🇱 (by a Brazilian 🇧🇷 ;-)

[@AndreasSpiess]

Glad I am part of your Sunday morning procedure!

[@kwinzman]

Good video and full of truth. I liked best how you concisely said that every company wants to commoditize the layer below them. And also if you follow the money you will understand the motivations. I couldn't agree more!

[@AndreasSpiess]

These two points probably are more important than the rest!

[@adrianvonino2574]

Excellent presentation! 💕

[@AndreasSpiess]

Thank you!

[@lancecluster]

The first portion of this would make for a wonderful Economics Course discussion. Nice Video

[@AndreasSpiess]

You are right. It seems that professors use it for such courses :-)