At the recent RISC-V Summit in Santa Clara, California, industry heavyweights, including NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Google, and Samsung, came together to explore the potential of the RISC-V architecture. This collaborative effort signals a shift towards open-source computing, positioning RISC-V as a solid alternative to the well-established Arm and x86 architectures.
NVIDIA, which has quietly integrated RISC-V into its GPU microcontrollers for nearly ten years, shared insights on how the architecture has transformed its product design. In a presentation titled “One Architecture, Dozens of Applications, Billions of Processors,” the company highlighted the versatility of RISC-V. NVIDIA focused on how this open standard supports the development of powerful GPUs and opens doors to a broader range of applications.
Qualcomm and Samsung join forces.
Qualcomm doubled its commitment to RISC-V, using the summit to introduce new approaches for refining its instruction set architecture. The company also participated in a panel discussion with NVIDIA and other tech leaders, covering the evolving relationship between AI development and secure computing.
Samsung, meanwhile, showcased how RISC-V CPUs are becoming integral to its embedded systems. The company highlighted its efforts to boost chip performance and revealed how Samsung Foundry is helping clients push the boundaries with RISC-V technology.
Google’s AI innovations with RISC-V
Google DeepMind also took center stage, sharing experiences with RISC-V-based AI accelerators. Representatives from Google discussed the triumphs and challenges of building Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) with the open-source architecture, underscoring RISC-V’s potential to revolutionize AI hardware.
RISC-V gathers speed in AI and automotive usage
Although it might be some time before RISC-V chips appear in mainstream PCs and servers, the architecture is already making waves in the AI and automotive sectors. Speakers throughout the summit delved into how RISC-V could reshape the future of generative AI and high-performance computing.
With more companies embracing it, RISC-V seems poised to play a central role in the next wave of technological innovation.
The message from Santa Clara was clear: while Intel and AMD still dominate the traditional CPU market, RISC-V’s open and flexible design is steadily gaining traction. As more tech giants get on board, the computing landscape could shift dramatically in the coming years.