Gabriele Svelto (gabriele.svelto.delete@this.gmail.com) on November 3, 2019 1:20 am wrote:
> anon (anon.delete@this.anon.com) on November 2, 2019 1:46 am wrote:
> > If that is arguable then you should have some sources with evidence to show how widespread it
> > is. I have not heard anything much except quite a few companies looking at it, and some (WD)
> > looking to move their controllers to it. Haven't heard how far along those efforts are.
>
> Western Digitial has already started using RISC-V across multiple products,
> not only the opened up their designs but also their CC fabric (link).
>
> nVidia is using RISC-V controllers both in their GPUs and in other products (link).
>
> Those were just the most visible use case but most of RISC-V uses are to replace custom cores such as the ones
> sold by Tensilica. Practically every vendor of RISC-V cores (Andes, Codasip, Syntacore, IQonIC) is offering
> customized cores for roles such as DSPs, C&C and other forms of hardware acceleration. Those aren't general
> purpose cores so you won't find them in SoCs running a GP OS but they're shipping in products nonetheless.
>
> > Also what does "deeply" embedded mean?
>
> It means that the core is shipped within an ASIC that is not available for sale outside of the companies
> products. I.e. it's not a stand-alone product that you can buy for other applications such as a mobile
> SoC. WD and nVidia uses are very good examples. You can buy a WD SSD which will have RISC-V cores
> in its controller, but the controller itself won't be available as a stand-alone product.

It may not be a very wonderful ISA but I expect Intel to continue supporting it strongly in the embedded market, and in fact not being too good and rather disorganized may be a plus point so it can never be a real threat in servers. Any little saving per unit can make a big difference to large companies like Nvidia or Western Digital and they have the manpower and expertise to do customization and test the result properly.