ISA – Valerian's Realm

Exploring the Open Source That Really Goes Into a RISC-V Chip

“Maker Andreas Spiess talks about the Open Source that really goes into a RISC-V chip and the ESP32-C3,” writes
Slashdot reader nickwinlund77 — sharing a link to this article from Hackaday: It’s an exciting time in the world of microprocessors, as the long-held promise of devices with open-source RISC-V cores is coming to fruition. Finally we might be about to see open-source…

Rediscovering RISC-V: Apple M1 Sparks Renewed Interest in Non-x86 Architecture

“With the runaway success of the new ARM-based M1 Macs, non-x86 architectures are getting their closeup,” explains a new article at ZDNet. “RISC-V is getting the most attention from system designers looking to horn-in on Apple’s recipe for high performance. Here’s why…” RISC-V is, like x86 and ARM, an instruction set architecture (ISA). Unlike x86 and ARM, it is a free…

Could RISC-V Processors Compete With Intel, ARM, and AMD?

“As promised, SiFive has unveiled a new computer featuring the company’s SiFive FU740 processor based on RISC-V architecture,” reports Liliputing: The company, which has been making RISC-V chips for several years, is positioning its new SiFive HiFive Unmatched computer as a professional development board for those interested in working with RISC-V. But unlike the company’s other HiFive boards, the new Unmatched…

OpenPower Foundation Releases a Friendly EULA For IBM’s Power ISA RISC

Long-time Slashdot reader lkcl writes: Michael Larabel, of Phoronix, writes that the OpenPower Foundation has released a license agreement for Hardware Vendors to implement the Power ISA RISC instruction set in their processors. Hugh Blemings, the Director of OpenPower, was responsible for ensuring that the EULA is favourable and friendly towards Libre and Open Hardware projects and businesses. Of particular interest…

Free Coding Bootcamp ‘Lambda’ Tries Selling Its Income-Sharing Agreements — In Bundles

An anonymous reader quotes the Verge:
In December, online coding bootcamp Lambda School quietly partnered with Edly, a digital marketplace that helps schools sell income-sharing agreements (ISAs) to accredited investors. The arrangement allows Lambda to receive money from the ISAs upfront, rather than waiting for students to find jobs. But it also flies in the face of the values Lambda typically espouses:…

Why the Amazon is burning: 4 reasons

Nearly 40,000 fires are incinerating Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Apocalyptic as this sounds, science suggests it’s not too late to save the Amazon. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/amazon-rainforest-fires-burning-4-reasons-why…

IBM is Moving OpenPower Foundation To The Linux Foundation

IBM makes the Power Series chips, and as part of that has open sourced some of the underlying technologies to encourage wider use of these chips. The open source pieces have been part of the OpenPower Foundation. Today, the company announced it was moving the foundation under The Linux Foundation, and while it was at it, announced it was open sourcing…

Red Hat Joins the RISC-V Foundation

Red Hat has joined the RISC-V Foundation to help foster this open-source processor ISA. Phoronix reports: While we’re still likely years away from seeing any serious RISC-V powered servers at least that can deliver meaningful performance, Red Hat has been active in promoting RISC-V as an open-source processor instruction set architecture and one of the most promising libre architectures we have…

Open Source RISC-V License Helps Alibaba Sidestep US Trade War

“RISC-V is open source, so it’s much more resistant to government bans,” reports Tom’s Hardware: The Alibaba Group Holding, China’s largest e-commerce company, unveiled its first self-designed chip, Xuantie 910, based on the open source RISC-V instruction set architecture. As reported by Nikkei Asian Review, the chip will target edge computing and autonomous driving, while the RISC-V’s open source license may…