RISC-V technology represents an opportunity for China. A race to scare America

RISC-V architecture plays an important role in China's strategy. This technology is a free hardware alternative to the x86-64 designs of Intel and AMD and CPUs with the ARM architecture that have proliferated in recent years. For a country led by Xi Jinping, this represents opportunity sustains its technological development Despite sanctions from the US-led coalition. In fact, the Chinese government has formed a consortium of companies and research institutes that want to develop chips with this architecture.

Tencent, Alibaba and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are some of the companies working on the development of processors with the RISC-V architecture, and the US administration is very concerned. Because this technology is used to build supercomputers with extraordinary capabilities. In fact, Europe is already EPAC ready (European Processor Accelerator), its first RISC-V chip, and more precisely designed to reside inside the next European supercomputers.

The US Department of Commerce is investigating the risks

RISC-V technology has the potential to represent a threat to US national security. Unless, of course, it is used by China. This is accurate What weight do you weigh? The US Commerce Department, an agency led by the ever-controversial Gina Raimondo, has made this known in a letter to US lawmakers. Reuters.

Business sector in this document is reassuring The following: „We are working to analyze the potential risks and assess whether the trade authorities' powers can effectively address any potential concerns.” However, there are other implications that this company must take into account. Many U.S. companies work with RISC-V technology, and the administration's move to harm China could also harm U.S. companies that use this architecture.

In mid-October, Calista Redmond, general director of RISC-V, chose to speak at RISC-V International to express the position of the people who support it. This manager maintains the instruction set of this architecture Be free and open. Otherwise, according to Redmond, innovation will suffer and the development of all use cases where this technology is used will be slowed.

„RISC-V is here. And it's here to stay. Its global acceptance and influence as an open computing standard has grown tremendously. Additionally, it has benefited from significant contributions from across the planet, and its global nature prevents it from being controlled by one country or one organization,” Calista defends Redmond In an article he published on the RISC-V International blog.

In this environment there is little room for maneuver for US legislators. Sanctions attached to proprietary technologies benefiting from US-origin patents are effective to the extent that the US government strictly and directly prevents their entry into China. however, The open, free and universal nature of RISC-V This greatly limits the scope of the regulation implicitly recognized in the United States, so the Chinese government does not seem to have serious reasons for concern in this context.

More information | Reuters

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