The chief executive officer of RISC-V International stated that probable government limits on open-source technology would slow the creation of new and improved processors, which will, in turn, hold back the global technology sector.
These remarks came after Reuters reported the previous week that an increasing number of politicians in the United States are calling on the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to apply export control limitations surrounding RISC-V. This open-source technology the RISC-V International nonprofit foundation manages. The RISC-V technology can be incorporated into artificial intelligence or mobile device manufacturing chips.
Not only have major American companies like Qualcomm (QCOM.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google adopted RISC-V, but so have major Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co (HWT.UL), which some politicians in the United States believe poses a threat to the country’s national security.
Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International, which organizes work among firms on the technology, stated in a blog post that RISC-V is no different than other open technology standards like Ethernet, which allows computers on the internet to interact t with each other. Ethernet is a standard that enables communication between devices connected to the internet.
“Contemplated actions by governments for an unprecedented restriction in open standards will have the consequence of diminished access to the global marketplace of products, solutions, and talent,” according to Redmond. “Bifurcating on the standards level would lead to a world of incompatible solutions that duplicate effort and close off markets.”
According to what Redmond has said, RISC-V has received contributions from all three continents—North America, Europe, and Asia—in equal measure. The standards released by the foundation are not a complete blueprint for a chip, nor do they provide any party with more knowledge about creating a chip than what is already accessible from private chip technology corporations such as Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F),. The foundation has published these standards to ensure that Eve has access to the same level of information.
“The only difference is that the marketplace is allowed to use these standards without proprietary licenses from a controlling company,” according to Redmond. “Having access to open standards allows companies to innovate faster and spend their time creating differentiated products, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”