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 help Alibaba
side-step the U.S. trade war altogether.

Alibaba doesn't intend to manufacture the chips itself. Instead, it
could outsource production to other Chinese semiconductor companies,
such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. According to
Nikkei, the Chinese government has been encouraging wealthy Chinese
companies from various industries to enter the semiconductor industry
in recent years. The government's efforts accelerated when the trade
war with the U.S. started last year. It reportedly forced foreign
companies to transfer their technology and IP to Chinese companies if
they wanted any chance at the local Chinese market.

"Most Chinese companies are still wary about whether Arm's
architecture and Intel's architecture and technical support would
remain accessible amid tech tension and further geopolitical
uncertainties," Sean Yang, an analyst at research company CINNO in
Shanghai, said, according to Nikkei. "It would be very helpful for
China to increase long-term semiconductor sufficiency if big companies
such as Alibaba jump in to build a chip (design) platform which
smaller Chinese developers can just use without worrying about being
cut off from supplies."

The article also notes that using RISC-V will give Alibaba "the
ability to completely customize and extend the ISA of the processors
built on top of it without having to get permission from any company
first."'

-- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/29/0224256

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
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