Can RISC-V Help Companies Overcome Supply Chain Challenges?

It has been more than two years since the COVID-induced supply chain woes began, and companies are still dealing with the fallout of massive demand for semiconductors. Despite supply chain challenges, companies still need to be competitive and release new products on aggressive timelines. To help speed up time to market, semiconductor vendors and startups have turned to an open ISA standard to create their new products.

The number of products being built on top of RISC-V has been increasing recently, with new products being released from major manufacturers and startups. Now some of the biggest tech names outside of semiconductor manufacturers are getting into the RISC-V game, including Intel Foundry Services, which will make its RISC-V-based portfolio and fabrication services available to the community through its Foundry Innovation System program. The organic ecosystem springing up around RISC-V could prove to be a viable alternative to supply chain challenges that are preventing procurement of legacy products.

What Makes RISC-V So Popular?

RISC-V is an open processor development framework with a complete ready-to-use instruction set. This ISA is totally open-source, and custom instructions can be added or removed as needed to implement specialty logic at the hardware level. The advantages of such a specification are numerous, including:

• IC developers can access a complete ISA framework and open-source chip designs without paying a license for a proprietary ISA

• Startups have begun innovating their own IP portfolios on top of RISC-V and building their own ecosystems to compete with Arm

• Core designs can be translated to VHDL or using vendor IP for instantiation in an FPGA

• Non-profit development groups, foundations, universities, and individual developers could conceivably implement their own chip designs and build on multi-project wafers

Currently, RISC-V is not competitive with Arm and x86 at the higher end of computing products. However, it is finding plenty of adoption in lower-end processors and specialty ASICs for advanced applications like AI. The highest-end processors are actually IP available from FPGA vendors, which can be used to build hardware platforms that are extremely competitive with the most advanced proprietary chip designs.

• Learn more about RISC-V-based chips and products currently on the market

How Can RISC-V Help Solve Supply Chain Challenges?

It might not be obvious how an open standard like RISC-V helps solve supply chain challenges revolving around new product releases. After all, companies don’t generally look to the open-source community when they have an issue with software vendors, they typically just switch vendors. While companies have been managing as best they can over the last two years, including double ordering and engaging multiple sources, hardware can be unique as it has limited perfect replacements, and developing your own replacement has a significant barrier to entry.

• Shifting to RISC-V enables a new approach to procurement, where companies may no longer need to rely on vendors who are building on their proprietary ISAs.

• When a desired Arm-based or x86-based chip is unavailable, you could use lower-cost IP or design your own core from the RISC-V standard.

• Another option is to just use an FPGA with vendor IP, and you can instantiate any of your system’s Arm-based ASICs into a single RISC-V component.

You Still Need Fab Capacity

Assuming you aren’t going to go the FPGA route, then it should be noted that RISC-V doesn’t help you overcome a lack of chip manufacturing capacity. Given the amount of time required to bring a new fab online (multiple years), RISC-V isn’t going to eliminate any manufacturing capacity challenges. Some would argue that shifting to RISC-V takes up more capacity; there is currently an undersupply of existing chips, and adding new orders for RISC-V-based chips into the backlog simply extends the lead times for everything else.

The takeaway is: assuming you can secure time and space in a fab, systems developers will no longer be tied to buying products that use proprietary ISAs, they can use an open-source core and build on their own. For the larger technology players that need their own chips, RISC-V continues to look like a great path forward for traditional processor architectures.

Upcoming RISC-V Products

We’ve already outlined some of the newest RISC-V IP and supporting products from major semiconductor manufacturers, and the industry shows no signs of slowing down. Startups are also releasing their own RISC-V-based products targeting advanced applications like AI, vision, and advanced DSP directly on-chip. These systems are taking a cue from the academic literature and are implementing the computing steps required for these applications directly in their hardware using custom RISC-V instructions and unique hardware architecture.

One great example of a highly integrated component is the Renesas R9A02G020 motor controller. This component uses a specialty mixed-signal interface with a RISC-V core provided by Andes Technology (N22 RV32I). The specialty logic implemented in the core provides standard handling of three-phase motors with an integrated 12-bit ADC, dual 8-bit DACs, a temperature sensor, and a high-speed comparator. An evaluation kit is currently available from Renesas.

As the RISC-V ecosystem continues to develop and more products come to market, Octopart will be here with advanced search and filtration features to help you find the components you need. When you use Octopart’s electronics search engine, you’ll have access to up-to-date distributor pricing data, parts inventory, and parts specifications, and it’s all freely accessible in a user-friendly interface. Take a look at our integrated circuits page to find the components you need.

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