
Raspberry Pi Foundation Announces RISC-V Foundation Membership - sadiq
https://abopen.com/news/raspberry-pi-foundation-announces-risc-v-foundation-membership/
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tomxor
I know this doesn't promise anything but... the idea of a RISC-V raspberry pi!
That has to be the fastest way to push Linux into the RISC-V world.

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jononor
In many areas of embedded, Linux is the default OS choice for a SoC these
days. Sometimes Android for things with screen/UI. I expect Linux to be the
default for RISC-V SoCs (not microcontrollers) also, even without any RPI
involvement.

But the Board Support Packages from typical vendors tend to be as-closed-as-
possible, with limited access to documentation, software updates and support
for small customers. RPi comes from a different direction, much more open and
accessible. So hopefully they will drag/push the vendors to be this type of
open from the start in the RISC-V space.

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tomxor
> But the Board Support Packages from typical vendors tend to be as-closed-as-
> possible, with limited access to documentation, software updates and support
> for small customers. RPi comes from a different direction, much more open
> and accessible. So hopefully they will drag/push the vendors to be this type
> of open from the start in the RISC-V space.

Yes, I was thinking from the perspective of the end user, as in those of
normal embedded devices are intentionally ignorant of it's workings... where
as the audience of the raspberry pi is the exact opposite.

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jononor
A bit curious considering how closely they have collaborated with Broadcom so
far, and with Broadcom not being a RISC-V member.

Though 2 of 3 founders of [https://www.lowrisc.org/](https://www.lowrisc.org/)
worked on Raspberry PI, that is a common connection.

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mtgx
Sounds like they're just dipping their toes in the water, no public intention
to build a RISC-V chip yet (unfortunately).

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simcop2387
I doubt they'll design their own chip, but I wouldn't be shocked to find that
they joined to try to steer other partners and development into the areas
they'd need to make a board comparable with a RISC-V cpu and some kind of GPU.

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bhouston
Need a fully open source GPU arhchitecture...

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alphakilo
Makes me happy that my school ensures all EE/CE/SE students are learning
RISC-V vs ARM :)

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bhouston
It makes sense for raspberry pi go fully open and move away from the
properitary arm architecture.

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rasz
except for fully closed GPU that runs the whole thing, right? :) ARM is just a
cpu core glued to the ass of the proper SoC, cant even boot itself.

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quickben
Anybody knows what's the potential savings? How much cheaper can the rpi be?

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tyingq
Whatever the 1.5% ARM royalty fee is for your org:
[https://www.codasip.com/2017/04/11/risc-vs-impact-on-
process...](https://www.codasip.com/2017/04/11/risc-vs-impact-on-processor-ip-
licensing-fees/)

For someone like Western Digital, that's probably a huge deal. I don't think
it saves the RPi folks much. I suspect they get a loss leader deal. The total
volume can't be that high, but it's good press for Texas Instruments.

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jononor
RPI is good press for _Broadcom_. Texas instrument would be
BeagleBone/BeagleBoard.

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tyingq
Ahh, good catch, thanks.

