[Footpost]

The reasoning for this choice in the base ISA is discussed in the RISCV ISA manual, Section 2.4 on "Integer Computational Instructions" [1]. Given that RISCV is a modular ISA, it should be possible in principle to have suitable ISA extensions that do integer overflow detection. Maybe the absence of such an extension in 2025 indicates that this is not a pressing need for many RISC-V users?

[1] https://lists.riscv.org/g/tech-unprivileged/attachment/535/0...

[snvzz]

While very convenient to quickly link some ancient draft spec, let's try and stick to the actual ratified specifications[0].

Of course, the rationale is still there in section 2.4 of the current (20250508) ratified version of The RISC-V Instruction Set Manual Volume I: Unprivileged ISA.

0. https://riscv.org/specifications/ratified/