RISC-V (and SiFive) caught a moment where it could be used is a way to squeeze ARM on pricing. It doesn't really meaningfully create openness on the interesting parts of the stack (core architecture, SoC architecture, etc.) on its own. In that sense, the hype is overblown.
It does _enable_ open-source cores to some degree, but that's it, someone has to take the leap to make a production-ready one. A few companies are trying, but an open-source SoC is even further down the road.
RISC-V was sold to us as the fully open CPU ecosystem but all it offered was an open design and some reference implementation in Chisel. That is not much different from MIPS which opensourced some CPUs 10-15 years ago.
A lot more is needed for a fully open RISC-V computer.
Nobody sold RISC-V as a fully open CPU or SOC ecosystem.
It simply allows for open source implementations to exists.
> but all it offered was an open design and some reference implementation in Chisel
You are confused between what RISC-V the foundation and what different people in the ecosystem do. RISC-V was started by Berkley and then they created a foundation. There are NO REFERENCE Implementation! Not in Chisel or anything else. Chisel is simply what Berkley used for some of their initial work.
And it has largely worked. There are lots of high quality open CPUs. This was certainty not the case in the past:
oh damn, I was about to go hard on an order bc I liked their location and the story. But I need more Chinese fabricated SoCs (which in 2023 are likely are pre-infected) like I need a hole in the head. I’ve seen quite a few crowds wind up in the garbage heap of history because “errbody is doing it” so forgive me while I plug my ears and scream the word No over and over again while I laugh at dem downvotin’ downvoters dat love cheap Chinese fabricated SoCs.
RISC-V (and SiFive) caught a moment where it could be used is a way to squeeze ARM on pricing. It doesn't really meaningfully create openness on the interesting parts of the stack (core architecture, SoC architecture, etc.) on its own. In that sense, the hype is overblown.
It does _enable_ open-source cores to some degree, but that's it, someone has to take the leap to make a production-ready one. A few companies are trying, but an open-source SoC is even further down the road.