[lizknope]

Most people don't realize that most chips have more processors than just the main CPU cluster. The PCIE and DDR PHYs often have tiny low end CPU cores used for things like link training. There may be 10 of those CPU cores and these are the kinds of things that are being replaced by RISC-V. You don't need a fast CPU for this stuff.

Eventually RISC-V may have CPU cores fast enough to compete with high end ARM and x86 cores but it will take a while and incentive from the chip companies to design those high performance RISC-V cores. Some of that incentive may come from ARM raising license fees.

[brucehoult]

A good example is the recent announcement by Framework that a (fairly slow for now ... something like late Pentium III, but quad core) RISC-V CPU card will soon be available for their laptops. And, oh by the way, our fingerprint reader has been RISC-V since 2020...

> Eventually RISC-V may have CPU cores fast enough to compete with high end ARM and x86 cores but it will take a while

Multiple companies with as good credentials as Nuvia have been working on similar level RISC-V cores since about 2022. Nuvia was founded in 2019, the Snapdragon X Elite chip using their core is out now. Expect RISC-V to take the same amount of time ... i.e. probably hit the market in 2027.

Is that "a while"? It's basically tomorrow in chip and software development terms.