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What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
121–129 of 129 posts
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#122I've played with a bunch of RISC-V platforms, mostly SBCs in the raspi class Beyond the potential platform fragmentation due to the variability of the ISA (a very unfortunate design choice IMO), mentioned elsewhere in this thread, what I find most frustrating is the boot process / equivalent of BIOS in that world. My impression: complete lack of standardization, a ton of ad-hoc tools native to each vendor, a complete…
> 2. a unified BOOT environment which supports a broad standard of devices to boot from (SSD, network, SD-Card, hard-drives, etc...) I got the same experience tinkering with ARM devices. It soured me so much that I have decided that until ARM offers a unified boot mechanism like x86 PCs do, I will ignore it, no matter the supposed benefits.
Do you have a lot of experience with x86 SBCs?
The RISC-V server spec mandates UEFI, ACPI, and SBI. Here is a RISC-V “desktop” motherboard that has the same:
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#123I've played with a bunch of RISC-V platforms, mostly SBCs in the raspi class Beyond the potential platform fragmentation due to the variability of the ISA (a very unfortunate design choice IMO), mentioned elsewhere in this thread, what I find most frustrating is the boot process / equivalent of BIOS in that world. My impression: complete lack of standardization, a ton of ad-hoc tools native to each vendor, a complete…
> the whole RISC-V thing will remain a tiny niche
I think this is going to embarrassingly wrong.
> all of the SW that is native to the platform
There are several RISC-V Linux distros where essentially all the software available for the x86-64 platform is also available on the RISC-V edition. Let’s use Ubuntu as an example.
> when a vendor loses interest in the platform > the platform goes to rot immediately
Ubuntu will provide updates for 15 years. That does not seem very immediate.
For RVA23 hardware, I expect even new Ubuntu releases to support it up to around 2030 at least. 15 years from then will be 2045. I cannot say that I am picking up what you are laying down here.
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#124I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years
I think 10 years is a more realistic estimate. Probably first in servers and Android phones.
Hyperscalers are using RISC-V servers today. Here is an example from SiFive (USA).
https://www.sifive.com/blog/investing-in-our-next-chapter-of...
And here is an example of Alibaba using RISC-V for inference and training in the cloud:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/08/china-alibaba-data-cente...
Those are both up and running today.
And of course there is Tenstorrrent:
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
ARM is RISC and dominates x86 in most markets. In 2026, RISC-V is not what I would call “low end”. Look up the P870-D, or Ascalon, it C950. Do you think Apple spends more money than Intel on chip design?
ARM is mostly RISC, and doesn't dominate x86 in desktop and servers. Apple business is vertical integration, they have zero presence in the chip market.
Correct, ARM does not dominate x86 in desktop and servers. Just everywhere else.
Apple is top 5 for laptop and desktop market share. So, pretty sure Apple RISC Silicon has a presence in those markets. Very recently, Qualcomm has entered as well. And of course Chromebooks are primarily ARM.
ARM has only recently entered the server market. Already it is having some success, especially with hyperscalers.
RISC-V is about to enter all those markets. I mean, RISC-V silicon is in use in the cloud. But it is still an experiment at this stage. And you can buy a RISC-V laptop. But they are only for devs.
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#126Not my area of expertise but what exactly is the difference between RISC-V and Power PC? Didn't Power-PC get a good run in the 90s and 2000s? Just wondering why there's renewed interest in RISC-like architectures when industry already had a good exploration of that area.
The experiment never ended.
Pretty much every new ISA introduced since the 80’s has been RISC.
PowerPC was adopted by Apple (RISC), they went back to Intel (CISC), and then they went back to RISC (Apple Silicon).
ARM, pretty much all phones, tablets, and Chromebooks is RISC.
Windows runs on ARM now as well (Qualcomm X Elite).
The interest around RISC-V is that anybody can use it in their chips without having to ask permission.
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#127I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years
> I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer
I may be using this one soon:
https://store.deepcomputing.io/products/dc-roma-risc-v-mainb...
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure on the timelines, but snap, upstart and Mir were all attempts at evolving Linux ecosystem that lost to RedHat-backed systems. Unity was legit abandoned, and bazaar... Not sure what they were trying to solve there with git and forges already existing.
Wayland was created in 2008. Mir was created in 2013. Bazaar and Git were created around the exact same time. Unity was abandoned after a failed attempt to circumvent Gnome 3. I was actually involved with the development of Compiz and they hired Sam to work on Unity, as he was one of the masterminds behind Compiz, but again they just didn't have the vision or execution to make it work.
Mir worked in 2014? Wayland took until 2025.
Re: What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 2. a unified BOOT environment which supports a broad standard of devices to boot from (SSD, network, SD-Card, hard-drives, etc...) I got the same experience tinkering with ARM devices. It soured me so much that I have decided that until ARM offers a unified boot mechanism like x86 PCs do, I will ignore it, no matter the supposed benefits.
Do you have a lot of experience with x86 SBCs? The RISC-V server spec mandates UEFI, ACPI, and SBI. Here is a RISC-V “desktop” motherboard that has the same: https://milkv.io/titan
I have touched some PC-98 and FM Towns, which are x86 but not IBM PC compatible.
But I understand your point, ARM has its roots in embedded systems and it shows. I really hope that RISC-V learns from that mistake and focuses on standardization, the board you linked looks very promising.