Why RISC-V Matters

[@JeffGeerling]

It's certainly been exciting to see how quickly RISC-V has progressed to the point of stability, and hardware compatibility. Still would like to see some more competitive options for higher speed cores, but it's successful in areas where that speed is not essential compared to Arm and X86.

[@rmcdudmk212]

Give it another year or two and RISC could be a decent competitor in the current ARM dominated market. But we shall see.

[@BrianMaddox]

I’m still waiting for ARM (and RISC V) to start doing motherboards and replaceable CPUs. Right now upgrading would be a whole new board and that just seems a lot of e-waste.

[@allangraham970]

Arguably the world's best CPU designer, Jim Keller has developed some Riscv cores Maybe he is only using them for AI workloads) So it possible we will see some good Riscv processors sometime. Also Qualcomm is definitely not going to want to be dependant on ARM so they highly likely to be developing RiISCV processors for eg phones

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Hi, Jeff! I think by the end of this decade, we'll start seeing consumer RISC-V computers hitting the market. Just my hutch.

[@BruceHoult]

I got email today that my Milk-V P550 board has shipped. That should be twice as fast as the JH7110, TH1520, SpacemiT boards and in fact maybe close to the first i7s in 2009 (or at least the last Core 2 Quads). Only politics is preventing RISC-V from having boards comparable to the Pi 5 / Rock 5 / Orange Pi 5 this year, just two years behind Arm SBCs. Well, who knows .. it seems there might be some other SoCs waiting in the wings. I'm trying to get an Orion O6 which does put Arm ahead a bit more. No doubt Jeff will have early access to one o those (already?)

[@michaelwright2986]

Realistic enthusiasm and moderated optimism. How refreshing.

[@Pallidus_Rider]

RISC-V finally brings excitement to personal computing. It takes me back to the 90s, when I was excited about building PCs. 486 generation will always have a special place for me.

[@bookvee]

which reminds me of that first time I cracked open a 386 and installed a sound card and listened to canyon for the first time. Totally worth having to buy a bizzarre triangle head screwdriver to open the case... Thank you, tandy.

[@sorphin]

Likewise. I enjoyed building all my machines back in the 90s (my Tandy 1000SX was in fact the only prebuilt machine I ever owned (besides an Atari in the 80s) until laptops later in my jobs. I eventually lost the 'interest' as much when all it became is clock wars and less new advances.

[@bookvee]

@@sorphin Heh. I remember going out and buying a new hard drive! It was a whole 8 gb. the guy who sold it to me, told me, ciggarette in mouth, "Dunno what ya's gunna put on all THAT space. Not like Yas ever gunna fill it all."

[@frank-y8n]

@@bookvee When I bought my first computer I elected to have 4MB memory and an 80MB hard disk, when the shop proposed 2MB and 40MB. Thereafter I built my own computers and impressed my current wife with that and with using Linux. She knew much more about Linux than I did ...

[@bookvee]

@@frank-y8n I have puppy linux installed on an old atom system I build out of a broken laptop. its been with me through so much and never lets me down.

[@pscheie]

It's not just the competition that RV provides that is important. It's that *anyone* can build a RV processor, and do so without having to deal with licensing issues or permission from another company. This means lots of people can experiment with it, and many more ideas can be explored and tested. That's why Linux has taken over most of computing (yes, Windows dominates the desktop market, but that's only about 30% of the total computing market), because anyone can twiddle with it and apply to all sorts of situations that lots of people might not even think of. Exciting times! I'm glad Chris, Jeff, and others are following RV closely.

[@connormclaughlan8196]

Right, but this is nothing new. Anyone could build other CPUs as well. Sun opensourced all their sparc IP under the GNU License. Even the T1 and T2 which are able to execute 4 threads and 8 threads per core respectively.

[@cosmiccutie6687]

Linux has a 16% desktop share in India after their government realized that it's way better than paying for a Windows license. One hopes that with the EU shifting to the libreOffice suite, linux desktop share crosses 10% by 2030

[@laletemanolete]

Imagine the time when all your PC is opensource. What a dream.

[@johncundiff7075]

Every time I watch a video with Christopher Barnatt, I learn something! Can't say that about just any youtube channel!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching. :)

[@johncundiff7075]

@@ExplainingComputers Have you thought about doing a video on "Software Defined Radio" and the little USB dongle/antenna for listening to AM/FM/SW/CB/HAM and such???/ It's a hobby I've jumped into recently and enjoy it very much.. Perhaps on your other channel??/ Just a suggestion from a friend!

[@antilove84]

Among the most respectable channels on youtube no clickbait's, weird poses, silly jokes, fancy decoration or overrated production Just professional videos simplifying various subjects in a calm attitude and motivated mainly by passion

[@sparky_inda_house]

Competition is a good thing, it helps prevent 'things' becoming stagnant and/ or monopolised. Good video Sir.

[@michaelgreaves2375]

You just know that in the board rooms at intel they are desperately trying to figure out an underhanded way to close off the market to RISC-V to prevent it's development and utilization. Some idiot has probably told Trump to "Just buy it so it's OURS."

[@gangstaboy9387]

I think you may have fallen victim to some am****** pr********, cause most 'things' have developed faster and better without competition and even in monopoly. I know this comment won't change your mind even a little bit but I hope that more people will start questioning what we are bombarded with everyday here in the west. There's no proof for competition being a positive force in technological or medical progress, though an insane amount of proof that it is the other way around. That competition can, and have, stopped progress so often that even I wonder how the hell I've not seen it earlier. It takes some balls and will power to start reading objective history though, because it shatters one's whole world for quite some time lol. Hopefully someone who reads this will search different places for what I just wrote and that it opens up someones world a little bit. edit: I'm talking about competeition between private corporations/businesses now. Not the "space race" lol...

[@ablebaker99]

I found RISC-V when I was looking for a simple computer to implement on an FPGA in Verilog. (just to learn about this sort of thing) It seemed that I mostly found toy projects or complex ones. But then I discovered a project called DarkRISCV. I opened the Verilog file for the computer and was stunned to see that the code was only about 8 pages long to implement the RV32I instructions for the RISC-V. Not only that but it was not too hard to see how it worked. The author of this project says "The RV32I specification itself is really impressive and easy to implement".

[@farishanafiah8461]

And with Arm Holdings wanting to increase the price by 300%, the need for RISC-V couldn't have come at a better time. It really is about time we have a mainstream open source ARM SoC.

[@sindhujt]

Open source ARM ?

[@farishanafiah8461]

@sindhujt RISC-V is literally the open source counterpart of ARM. ARM is an architecture, while Arm Holdings is the company that build the architecture.

[@kjrehberg]

@@farishanafiah8461 RISC-V has nothing to do with ARM except for sharing the ideas of RISC.

[@jeffreyjoshuarollin9554]

It really is astonishing (at least when you get to my age, I.e. pushing 50) to see how, over and over again, tech companies fall into the trap of jacking prices up and other profit-endangering processes, when any fool who happens to be a bystander in the tech space can see their competitors running up the next hill ready to steal their lunch. Still true even if it does involve half a dozen mixed metaphors!

[@farishanafiah8461]

@jeffreyjoshuarollin9554 Well said. Quarterly profit is always a mistake.

[@DavidGolder]

"We had lots of incompatible computers." And yet those were the glory days of home computing. Tell me you don't miss those days, Chris.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Oh yes, I miss those days! :) They were the best.

[@yitspaerl7255]

Thanks again. During my study we learned to design microprocessors. Was back in the 80's. At that time it was already clear that a RISC CPU is more efficient than a CISC CPU.

[@alanthornton3530]

RISC-V is most definitely needed & when it matures it'll be able to give X-86 & ARM a boot up the backside as they'll both be asleep at the wheel, that's what I'm hoping for, watch this space exciting times ahead!! Thanks Chris for another excellent video :)

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Hi, Alan!

[@CnCDune]

AFAIK, currently the only reason people will stick to x86 is app-compatibility - engineering-software in particular will probably always remain as such, and the same can be said for many old programs still in use today.

[@Clark-Mills]

...& I just watched this video... Thank you again for championing RISC-V. I agree that World-Domination will happen irrespective but you are helping accelerate by fighting the FUD. (Many Linux kernel parallels in this quest).

[@TheSulross]

3 indeed seems to be the magic number for a minimum number of players in a given market where sufficient competition leads to consumer cost being driven down and innovation being fostered over time

[@sbc_soc_tinkerer]

RISC-V is alive!!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Alive and well! :)

[@bitwize]

RISC-V is gonna change everything.

[@fatladonbike]

Inpuuuuuut!

[@ericwood3709]

I love it. It's like the Linux of CPUs. I want to get desktop-quality boards and would really like to get ones that could fit existing older cases. It would be a fun way to reuse an old Mac mini or iMac if you could shove a RISC-V board in it.

[@Clark-Mills]

Thank you for keeping us informed. I just went back and watched your "HiFive Premier P550" clip; I'd missed that with the Xmas rush. Thank you again! :)

[@youtux2]

4:00 also x86 is under the hood a RISC processor, as it "decompiles" the most complex x86 instructions as a set of simpler insttructions, i.e. the "real" execution engine is RISC.

[@jeffreyjoshuarollin9554]

@youtux2 that wasn’t always the case, however: x86 was originally a CISC architecture, as it was designed before RISC was thought of or at least, before the concept gained ground. That’s *why* the instruction decoder is so complicated, as it has to turn the programmer-visible ISA into the “real” RISC ISA the microarchitecture uses. Other RISC processors, including, but not limited to, ARM and RISC-V, were designed as RISC from the ground up.

[@muddyexport5639]

Thanks! Also a proponent of RISC-V for several years. Glad to get some confirmation on "getting desktop traction".

[@K7RRW]

Thanks Chris for another excellent RISC-V video. I greatly appreciate your style of looking at the intended and nonintended consequences of things, shaking people a bit to think of the possible future. Thanks brother! Robert in Anacortes, Washington

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this, appreciated. :)

[@bobnelsonfr]

Well explained. I moved to Linux Mint (on a Ryzen chip) when Windows started to put ads in its search bar. 😮😮 I'm not a gamer. A "simple* processor has more than enough power. So I'm pleased to follow RISC-V's development. Thanks.

[@UserGreenCrab]

And if you are a gamer, proton to your save! (Depends on the game

[@CnCDune]

@UserGreenCrab And that is the issue - Proton/Wine/etc only work for some/most games; the others will need x86/Windows until that is fixed. If it's ever fixed.

[@mgord9518]

​@@CnCDuneWindows only works for "some/most games". The others will need PlayStation and Nintendo until that is fixed. If it's ever fixed

[@CnCDune]

@@mgord9518 That's not the point and you know it. You want everyone to switch away from Windows/x86, fair - but it's not fair to keep dismissing instances where it just doesn't work and gaslighting people who *love* to switch, but can't precisely because of "small" issues like these where things are *supposed* to work, but just don't run properly or even fail to launch no matter how many times you scour the forums - only to be told "change your GPU", which immediately dismisses people with laptops.

[@mgord9518]

@@CnCDune Switching will always take some sacrifices, doesn't matter what you're switching to or from. Linux supports an absurd amount of games now, there is nothing to "fix"

[@Geenimetsuri]

The best thing about RISC-V is that because it is open, it cannot be bought off the market. edit: Thanks for keeping us up to date! Great work!

[@prscrystalized3706]

I always found it remarkable that one cannot copyright a programming language of one's own design, but that it is possible to copyright ISAs. It's not done the world any favors, and hopefully this will tip the balance.

[@DariusOutdoors]

It's a lot of work and costy to develop a computer architecture. If you can't protect it from being copied, then nobody will put that effort into it. That's why development / investment for RISC-V is rather slow. Whatever someone cooks up, someone else can copy it.

[@askeladden450]

@@DariusOutdoors That's BS. Like op said, people put effort into programming languages, millions of open source projects that run the internet as well as countless open standards in in graphics, networking etc. Copyrighting such things only hinders innovation and creates monopolies.

[@DariusOutdoors]

​@@askeladden450 It doesn't cost anything to make software so developers can of course do whatever they want in their free time. Making hardware costs money on the other hand. Nobody can develop a processor in their free time for free. If you spend millions to develop some hardware you will not want your neighbour to just use that hardware design for free to sell his own computers. What RISC-V promotes is governmental oversight over hardware development. Fact of the matter is the biggest contributors of RISC-V funding are governments. India just announced 10 billion to develop their own RISC-V CPUs. So the end of the story is, while the ISA is "free and open source" the products won't. And whether it really pays off long term remains to be seen.

[@askeladden450]

@@DariusOutdoors We are talking about the ISA itself, not the hardware. No one is asking AMD to open source their zen 5 architecture. No one can just copy intel or amd if x86 was not a closed system. But it will allow others to bring competition to those 2 companies by bringing their own architectures to the table. Also, all software development costs money as developers are putting their time into it instead of working for a profit. I have been working on many open source projects in the past few years and had I been instead putting that effort into my own contractual work, I would have thousands of hours more of revenue.

[@DariusOutdoors]

​@@askeladden450 You know what I meant. You dont have to put money into working on a piece of software. For YOU it's free. The x86 ISA is open source pretty much. But developing a chip that makes use of it is pretty much impossible without stumbling across AMD / Intel patents. So both had to give up hardware patents in order for this to work. The only difference with RISC-V is that it's in its infancy. Once you have a couple big players they will patent the hell out of it and you're at square 1. That's essentially what ARM is.

[@farhanrejwan]

2:41~4:50 - absolute education! a great amount of thanks for clearing things up!

[@NCrdwlf]

I am probably one of your less knowledgeable subscribers, judging from some of the questions asked by your other viewers. You have a way of presenting hardware, software, and concepts so that I come away always learning something . You do so without coming off condescending . Your passion and knowledge has made this one of my favorite you tube channels . Thank you for your work.

[@perrymcclusky4695]

I'm looking forward to the next RISC-V board you review. Looking forward to your next video!

[@FELiPES101]

Although unrelated to this video, I wanted to thank you for your videos because I installed Linux Mint 22.1 on an old laptop for the first time. It is really cool to explore a new OS outside of Windows.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I feel your excitement here! It is indeed really cool to try out a new, non-Windows OS. It makes you go "Wow! There are different ways of doing things! And that is very empowering. Enjoy the experience.

[@JBearV8]

Let me just say: I found this channel with Jeff's channel just recently. I am thoroughly impressed quality in this channel. I have had passion for computer since 1994 when I got my first computer. Turning passion hobby in the work having degree but so much I had forgotten. With your channel and (Jeff's) I have been able to activate some core memories and enable forgotten stuff. I am forever grateful find your channel. Instantly subscribed and going thru your video's back as much as I can. All the best!

[@OOverflowW]

Clear and exhaustive, as usual ! Thanks sir for your dedication 👍

[@novantha1]

One of the coolest things about Risc-V to me is the SIMD instructions; having forward compatible instructions that will just choose the appropriate size of bit on its own blew my mind. SIMD wasn't really planned to be a huge thing when it came about in x86, and even in the really early days in ARM, so it was quite refreshing for me

[@paul.barrick]

You mean.... like ARM's SVE and SVE2?

[@RS4747]

RISC architecture is the one I studied in Uni back in early 90s. I follow these updates with keen interest.

[@brianbenny6790]

Fascinatingly complex technology topic explained from an economic standpoint. Basically, the risks of RISC-V are nil compared to the risk of continuing down the path of monopolistic processor use. It should open up new ways to use PC's and servers, instead of whatever big tech tells you. Thank you for this video and for all you do.

[@Void_Dragon]

3:39 linux kernal 6.13 actually added more support for RISC-V just a few days ago and is due to release on the 30th.

[@lionelreesable]

Chris, thank you for a very timely and useful video. Best wishes.

[@akashkumar-pf1bz]

I am also an economics student, and I am also interested in RISC-V computing..

[@zorabixun]

Why are you interested in RISC-V computing ?

[@farishanafiah8461]

​@@zorabixunIt's more open since you don't have to pay royalty and you can develop your own chip, which opens the door for healthier competition.

[@jeraldgooch6438]

A recent video about DeepSense, an LLM developed in China is pertinent to your comments about Global Implications and the effects of trade restrictions. The Chinese made do with older technology and developed new, more efficient, methods of training LLMs. I gather the cost of developing a model their way may be as much as an order of magnitude cheaper. Perhaps evidence that your comments are spot on. (As usual). Additionally it was my experience in the years of competition between Intel (8080/8088) and Motorola (6800 series), as long as you could write the code in a common language and cross compile to the different instruction sets, you were good. Thanks for the video.

[@countorlock3148]

risc is for the latin alphabet as x86 instruction set is to the chinese logograph, that's how i finally understood what it is.

[@keithdow8327]

Thanks!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your support. :)

[@proteque]

It is very exciting times. Things have moved very fast for the risc-v. I am cheering and hope to get my first board with RISC-V this year.

[@moneyisneutral]

This is excellent! I’ve always enjoyed learning about computers from you but I had no idea you were so solid on economics. Made my day.

[@chbrules]

You've hit the nail on the head on all points in this video. As a follower of Austrian economics, and a passionate computing enthusiast, I see the same outcomes as you outline in this video. The US needs to embrace more open and free trade and exchange of ideas. Isolationism rarely benefits anyone, or at least not for long. Thankfully, the world of technology is not confined to a single nation, and the internet extends beyond all borders. RISC-V and DeepSeek are wonderfully disruptive new developments that I hope to see more of in the future.

[@mikefinn2101]

The future could be very different with RISC-V and could be a game changer. Amazing how things can change as new ideas enter the market thanks for great video

[@chriholt]

It really is amazing how quickly RISC-V has developed, and thanks for following the developments!

[@t.v.9696]

More competition is always good for overall progress and end users. Thanks for the video, Chris 👍!

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

It has been a real treat to see RISC-V evolve over the past couple years and I remain optimistic about its future. Maybe by the end of this decade, we'll start seeing consumer RISC-V conputers hit the market! I really hope I'm right. It's good to be optimistic.

[@alanthornton3530]

Hey Ford it always pays to be optimistic for a RISC-Y future, I hope to be there for that revolution & 5 years isn't too long in the world of computing! Perhaps we'll look back & discuss the finer points of how things turned out. Exciting times ahead ;)

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

@@alanthornton3530 Hi, Alan! Yes, exciting times ahead indeed. :)

[@alsadekalkhayer7007]

Today's video was different, hats off and thank you

[@TerranVisitor]

What I would like to see, is a RISC-V approach (open arch) to 'AI' computing requirements. A RISC-V processor with a 'open arch' matrix math, etc IC would be spectacular !

[@jmsiener]

I think it’s critical to pursue alternatives to ARM and x86. I recently read that ARM is considering getting into production which to me means they want to bilk more out of their IP which will mean higher prices for everyone. ARM’s existing business model encouraged more specialized parts to meet a particular need or use case but if they’re making their own chips I see more of a lockdown in the future on how ARM allows their technologies to be used.

[@RonWolfHowl]

Exciting now that you can pop a RISC-V processor right into your Framework laptop!!!

[@AJBonnema]

I too was quite ignorant with respect to RISC and certainly did not know about RISC-V. Now I understand and I will be watching out for any new information about RISC-V implementations in future. I thank you very much for your video and I do hope you will review some of those new implementations. Thank you!

[@Poult100]

The future looks exciting!

[@thewatcher5271]

As Always, Insightful & Informative. I Got The Impression RISC-V Is The "LINUX" Of CPU's. Games & STEAM Should Not Be Overlooked As That's A Big Chunk Of It. Thank You. (Comment #570)

[@Trenchfoot1]

You nearly smiled on that last outro!

[@phrankus2009]

Thank you, Chris. for sharing your informed perspective. I have been, and shall continue, with you, on this promising journey.

[@GraemeLeRoux]

3:41 Small detail: ARM originally stood for Acorn RISC Machine. The Acorn Computer Company’s (Acorn was based in England. Cambridge I think) RISC project was an experimental platform in the mid-1980s. The object was to use the, then new, concept of a RISC machine to make an energy efficient probable machine. Acorn spun off the ARM project as ARM Holdings in about 1990 I think. ARM Holdings was a joint venture with VLSI (The company not the architecture) and I think (maybe wrong) Apple dropped some money into it as well. I’ve actually never heard of ARM being an acronym for ‘Advanced RISC Machines’….

[@Winnetou17]

* "Acorn RISC Machine" (not risk, lol)

[@GraemeLeRoux]

@ don’t you just love auto correction?

[@Winnetou17]

@ I do :))

[@soyabkhanmalek9204]

I love to see your videos, they are very informative and enjoyable.

[@RodrigoDeVincenzoMonteiro]

Thank you very for quick and direct state of RISC-V, professor! Hope there is steady development for it. Imagine Microsoft and Apple support in five years would do to acceleration in adoptance, yet too soon to think about. Glad we have BSD ramping up support! Waiting for your next update!

[@EnsignRho]

I really appreciate your videos. They're very well thought out. This one in particular with the global market consideration. Thank you for your time and effort in making high quality videos with excellent content.

[@JCase-k5w]

The seriousness of this topic is no laughing matter. The thoughtful breakdown of how a trade barrier will see the U.S. shooting itself in the foot is spot on.

[@harrkev]

In a lot of cases, it's more the threats of tariffs causing the other side to change that succeeds.

[@deechvogt1589]

Agreed.

[@Grandwigg]

​@@harrkevindeed. Also, it's exhausting hearing predictions of basically the end of world, or at least the US. Whatever anyone things about the new old guy, even with some support in the other branches, it's not like it can be easily broken to nothing. I can't wait to see what comes out of RISC-V in the coming months and years.

[@epsileth]

The seriousness is that the company importing pays the tariff, and passes the cost to the consumer. So as a Canadian, that's a roughly $500 billion trade loss in imports and exports each way, if we simply stop sending and accepting trade with America. Trump talks before thinking things through, and riles up his fan base for support.

[@dotapark]

Thank you so much for the video. Now I know so much about what RISC-V is.

[@waiitwhaat]

Seeing you uploaded a day ago i was confused because i really thought i saw a video by you a very very long time ago. And maybe I did. Cant believe you've been making computer videos for THIS long!

[@benyomovod6904]

Sir, I love your clear and clean way of explaining. Please find a hairdresser or toupet that matches your level

[@MacNewton]

This was a very interesting video. Thanks for the insight into new technology. I would definitely like to learn more about RISC-V Hopefully in the near future.

[@ExplainingComputers]

My "RISC-V 2025 Update" video will post in a couple of months. :) The last one is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGfQgX5phqileNE

[@stancil83]

No competition means no pressure to innovate or improve. I guess that's why humans are so competitive, nobody else to compete with, so we compete with each other. It's sort of a 'watchers watching the watchers' scenario.

[@TheDanEdwards]

Except Intel is competing with Apple, and Qualcomm is competing with Apple, and Apple is competing with Samsung (handheld), etc. To claim there is no competition today is silly.

[@stancil83]

​@@TheDanEdwards At least, the more, the merrier-wouldn't you say? Though I suppose there is market saturation to consider, I'd take that over stagnation. Oh yeah, I believe the competition he's talking about is mainly over x86/x86-64 and ARM (Advanced RISC Machine), so he's absolutely correct when it comes to RISC-V.

[@dgillies5420]

​@@TheDanEdwardsIntel is not really competing. THEIR CPUs are getting slower and their gpus are 4 years behind Nvidia and AMD. The only way they can sell GPU product is by giving away free money with subsidies....

[@makerbymistake]

Awesome video that goes beyond the "I tested this thing" theme. RISC-V is certainly interesting!

[@BokoMoko65]

Very good video. Very good geopolitic contextualization

[@brianwood5220]

Thanks for another thought provoking video, Chris.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

yeah it is. Risc-V is the future! Christopher take are my fav! You are the best

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@jonathanleach3914]

Very thoughtful and well articulated film. Thank you.

[@Chris.Wiley.]

This is a terrific video, Chris! I appreciate you providing a greater understanding of trends in the industry as well as a historical perspective of market disruptions all of which gives me food for thought.

[@BobCollins42]

Very well done overview of the state of play. I might have mentioned how ARM had already disrupted the x86 monopoly.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this, that would have been a very good point to include! :)

[@temyraverdana6421]

Thanks a lot for this great illuminating video. I'm shure 2025 is going to a great year for Risc processor development. See you next video

[@ravagingwolverine]

I have been excited about the idea of RISC-V since I learned of it. And I have little doubt that RISC-V will gain some traction, likely in certain places first due to the political conditions you mentioned at the end. It's also worth mentioning that several years ago Nvidia attempted to buy ARM which likely would not have brought about good things in the CPU space. Having something like RISC-V around serves as a check on that kind of monopolistic consolidation which I suspect we may see attempted again. Even as an independent entity, ARM will be forced to either keep its licensing fees in check or at least stay several steps ahead of RISC-V in terms of performance as long as that architecture is around an viable. There's work to be done for RISC-V, of course, to get the performance up and I look forward to seeing the progress, I also would like to see if RISC-V can bring about some positive developments in the SBC space. A while back, there was a push to try to make MIPS viable as an alternative to ARM, but it failed. It seemed the company's positioning was too unstable having been acquired and sold multiple times, and some of their decisions were odd or confusing.

[@juanjesusligero391]

I am so glad I found your channel, Christopher! I have learnt so much about computers, and I have even managed to return to using Ubuntu (dual boot for now), all thanks to you! ^^

[@zeuslgn]

Footnote: I believe one more source of x86 processors is Zhaoxin which was a joint venture with VIA (which bought up the old Cyrix and IDT/Centaur IP's). Though a decade or more behind in terms of performance, they do, AFAIUI, have international legal rights to produce x86 CPU's (albeit without the innovations added to the ISA by Intel and AMD over the decades).

[@renobodyrenobody]

Well thank you. Your voice matters, and this is the subject: Explaining Computers!

[@stub1116]

I enjoyed that video, more so because of the market structure analysis.

[@lmiddleman]

Another topic strengthening the case for RISC-V is trust. X86 CPUs already have spyware built into them and it’s impossible to avoid or even know how deep Alice can fall down the rabbit hole. Other proprietary cores provide cover for this premise, making all sorts of networking devices and appliances inherently untrustworthy. An open ISA establishes a context for a certification body to step in and verify that a chip is not backdoored or spying.

[@deechvogt1589]

Interesting observation. Yes, the closed natures of the ISAs does raise that question. How would we know if there were features of the CPU that would allow for indirect observation of what the CPU is doing?

[@RafaCoringaProducoes]

i am also in the hopes of more privacy, but im a comunist beware of china dictstorship style. Im not computer expert but ive heard their risc v implementation is kinda closed source. Understandable for inovation proteccionism but suspiciois since promoting biambu biambu biambu lol, debian and fedora are getting suport soon. Whats your view on this guys?

[@thiesenf]

And thanks to Edward Snowden we have a pretty good understanding of what players wants Intel/AMD to implement those backdoors...

[@awindowskrill2060]

"How deep Alice can fall down the rabbit hole". what a beautiful and terrifying way of putting it

[@user-jn6xg7vh3o]

Another great consideration is that the development of free/libre open-source software will be significantly easier on an instruction set and architecture that is publicly documented and understood. In particular, developing things like complex drivers should be easier, at least in theory, because no reverse-engineering will be required on that specific hardware. I believe that RISC-V, once it reaches maturity, will be an excellent example of the possibility of combining free software and free hardware for everyone's benefit. Something like RISC-V being open/free will rapidly incite development of free/libre technologies in the same way we see for the Raspberry Pi currently, and I sincerely believe that large corporations like Microsoft will at least initially have trouble capitalizing on RISC-V when the free software alternatives will be developed so rapidly. This might be wishful thinking, but nonetheless seeing a free software boom on RISC-V I feel is very likely.

[@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez]

No. Whole video is just random wishfull thinking and romantic gibberish. i will give you one example, can you buy any arm board and 'JUST" install linux on it ? No you cant, but you can buy intel / amd and it will. and this same fragmentation will be around RISCV too. Unless one big manufacturer embraces it ie Apple converts to RISCV. Which does not happen.

[@user-jn6xg7vh3o]

@ ARM isn’t an free/open architecture so I don’t see how that comparison makes much sense. Android runs the Linux kernel which arguably runs on more Arm devices than anything in the world.

[@logan26111]

Actually, yes, you can. Many in fact.

[@SnakebitSTI]

I don't see what difference it would make to the FOSS community at large. We already have very good FOSS compilers that target a range of x86 and ARM architectures.

[@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez]

software, drivers are not made because something is open, but because someone got paid to do it, and most arm boards are barely working, and not even talking about getting monthly updates, and if you have 50 different named/colored boards with same soc and same schematic that is not 50 boards that is one board,

[@Starchface]

Indeed I enjoyed the video Professor Barnatt. This was an excellent high-level discussion of the state of computing. I was unaware of your background in academia. More content like this will be welcome, as is your customary content to be sure.

[@bobdogtech7358]

Thanks very much for your detailed explanation of the RISC 5. I have learned a lot of new things from you.

[@ThomasBrisco]

Thanks! Once again you can take a complex topic, and make it straight-forward. When I worked in the "chaos of architectures" in the late '80's and early 90's - I didnt really see that we'd all evolve to largely one architecture (remember how Java was going to solve the machine architecture problem, by bringing it's own?). Seeing RISC-V come up is exciting, and with US trade-wars against China, China is rightfully doubling down on it - and I'm hoping to see great things come from their investment. Looking forward to a slightly more mature product RISC-V product offerig, but always looking to include one in my own home.

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Greeting Chris! I thought you brought attention to some very interesting and important points about the ISA's and the landscape of computing potential for new thing happening.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Susan! Thanks.

[@Grandwigg]

Excellent video. It's also refreshing to see emphasis on the positive impact of something like RISC-V in current events, while so many seem intent on full doom and gloom.

[@Kw1161]

Thanks Chris for the RISC-V update and I can see that the first Quantum Computer SBC will be based on the RISC-V architecture. However, I just hope I still feel like 39 years old when I watch your review...! Have a great weelk!

[@danielsnyder6900]

I really enjoy your videos, for me they are an excellent source to learn something new and clarifiy what I 'think' I know. I see Risc-V as a game changer in some market segments and I do welcome the competition as it is needed.

[@davidbolha]

*"RISC architecture is gonna change everything."* - Kate Libby, aka. 'Acid Burn', Hackers, 1995

[@brenatevi]

She wasn't wrong. The iPhone was 10 years later.

[@jeffseaman7358]

Arm which is risc dominants the microcontroller markey

[@BenKlassen1]

You didn't watch the video, it seems.

[@ettoreatalan8303]

Kate Libby was actually Angelina Jolie and had no idea about the stuff she had to say according to the script.😁

[@sandrinowitschM]

The Pentium Pro (codename "P6") had a RISC core and so did basically every following iteration of Intel x86 CPUs. The writer of that line got that absolutely right.

[@gordong11]

I just wanted to say that I love your intro.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@MaxWeninger]

Firesite chats with uncle Christopher :) Perfect for Sundays

[@breevwhyman2985]

- Sir .....my word, you painted a staggering reality about the Whole damn world of computing ....it just has a couple of platform ISA 's..... ..... yet life has thousands of models of automobile..... Life is truly ......very very..... unusual indeed... ,......,.we are realistic in seeing that this reality isn't our fault...... Thanks for enlightening the wider picture

[@catalinpatru6791]

Now finally "I got it", where and why RISC-V exist. Thank you Chris!

[@zeniktorres4320]

Superb. Thank you very much. That cleared it up for me.

[@dffabryr]

Through these excellent videos I knew about RISC-V. This is a very interesting plattform that have the inmense potential to became the standard in a 5 or more years, I hope geopolitics do not stop the devolpment of it.

[@NoX-512]

Unfortunately geopolitics has already slowed development down. Google recently paused porting Android to RISC-V because of the US - China trade war.

[@dffabryr]

@NoX-512 That's the way it works

[@Uniblab8]

Stagnation is a good way to describe today's computer atmosphere.

[@forbesb8125]

Thank you, that was a fascinating and extremely informative video. I'm now a RISC V fan boy.😊

[@kdeuler]

Has RISC-V advanced to the point where OS manufacturers (MS, Linux, MacOS, etc) can proceed with developing RISC-V versions?

[@ExplainingComputers]

Most certainly it has. :) Some established Linux distros now have RISC-V support -- eg Ubuntu. Later this year we'll also see the release of Debian 13, which for the first time includes RISC-V support.

[@glenwalker4093]

Yes there is the Fedora V Force project and Bianbu OS (based on Ubuntu) available for the DeepComputing boards/laptops and there is a build of Raspbian available. One of the stumbling blocks at the moment seems to be standardisation in that it requires slightly different builds for each manufacturer of chips so while Debian 13 will support a plethora of boards it wont support the DC-ROMA which has a RISC-V CPU made by Spacemit called the K1. Also some of the distros currently available still have more documentation and sources in Chinese which sometimes makes debugging or following the instructions a bit tricky for non Chinese speakers

[@DylanWilsonYT]

I love RISC-V it's so exciting!!

[@zorabixun]

What in RISC-V is exciting you ?

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Me too! :D

[@MnemonicCarrier]

That was very interesting - thanks!

[@cerescop]

Mint 22.1 is out and the upgrade works well.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Cool! :)

[@Colin_Ames]

Interesting and insightful, as always. Thanks Chris.