Intel, RISC-V Rally Rival Groups
Intel and RISC-V backers announced rival alliances to nurture competing ecosystems around tomorrow's processors.
Intel initiated Compute Express Link (CXL), an open chip-to-chip interconnect that it expects to use on its processors starting in 2021 to link to accelerators and memories. Other members include Alibaba, Cisco, Dell EMC, Facebook, Google, HPE, Huawei, and Microsoft.
Separately, a handful of RISC-V proponents launched the CHIPS Alliance, a project of the Linux Foundation to develop a broad set of open-source IP blocks and tools for the instruction set architecture. Initial members include Esperanto, Google, SiFive, and Western Digital. CHIPS stands for Common Hardware for Interfaces, Processors, and Systems.
The CHIPS Alliance is, by far, the most ambitious of the two efforts and is just one of several open-hardware initiatives in the works at the Linux Foundation. CHIPS aims to create open-source blocks for a variety of embedded cores as well as multi-core SoCs capable of running Linux — and, ultimately, an open-source design flow to build and test them.
Also at SDxCentral.
Related: Compute Express Link Specification (CXL) Version 1.0 Launched
Related Stories
CXL Specification 1.0 Released: New Industry High-Speed Interconnect From Intel
With the battleground moving from single core performance to multi-core acceleration, a new war is being fought with how data is moved around between different compute resources. The Interconnect Wars are truly here, and the battleground just got a lot more complicated. We've seen NVLink[0], CCIX[1], and GenZ[2] come out in recent years as offering the next generation of host-to-device and device-to-device high-speed interconnect, with a variety of different features. Now CXL, or Compute Express Link, is taking to the field.
This new interconnect, for which the version 1.0 specification is being launched today, started in the depths of Intel's R&D Labs over four years ago, however what was made is being launched as an open standard, headed up by a consortium of nine companies. These companies include Alibaba, Cisco, Dell EMC, Facebook, Google, HPE, Huawei, Intel, and Microsoft, which as a collective was described as one of the companies as 'the biggest group of influencers driving a modern interconnect standard'.
[...] While some of the competing standards have 20-50+ members, the Compute Express Link actually has more founding members than PCIe (5) or USB (7). That being said however, there are a few key names in the industry missing: Amazon, Arm, AMD, Xilinx, etc. Other standards playing in this space, such as CCIX and GenZ, have common members with CXL, and when questioned on this, the comment from CXL was that GenZ made a positive comment to the CXL press release - they stated that there is a lot of synergy between CXL and GenZ, and they expect the standards to dovetail rather than overlap. It should be pointed out that Xilinx, Arm, and AMD have already stated core CCIX support, either plausible future support or in products at some level, making this perhaps another VHS / Betamax battle. The other missing company is NVIDIA, who are more than happy with NVLink and its association with IBM.
[0] NVlink:
NVIDIA® NVLink™ technology addresses this interconnect issue by providing higher bandwidth, more links, and improved scalability for multi-GPU and multi-GPU/CPU system configurations. A single NVIDIA Tesla® V100 GPU supports up to six NVLink connections and total bandwidth of 300 GB/sec—10X the bandwidth of PCIe Gen 3.
Qualcomm Invests in RISC-V Startup SiFive
Investors are zeroing in on the open standard RISC-V instruction set architecture and the processor intellectual property being developed by a batch of high-flying chip startups.
Last fall, Esperanto Technologies announced a $58 million funding round. The chip IP vendor is incorporating more than 1,000 RISC-V cores onto a single 7-nm chip. Data storage specialist Western Digital is an early investor in Esperanto, Mountain View, Calif.
This week, another RISC-V startup, SiFive, announced a $65.4 million funding round that included new investor Qualcomm Ventures. SiFive, San Mateo, Calif., has so far raised more than $125 million, and is seen as a challenger to chip IP leader Arm.
Observers note that wireless modem leader Qualcomm is among Arm's biggest customers, making its investment in SiFive intriguing. Also participating in the Series D round were existing investors Chengwei Capital of Shanghai along with Sutter Hill Ventures and Spark Capital. Intel Capital and Western Digital also were early investors.
Also at EE Times.
See also: SiFive Acquires USB 2.0 and 3.x IP Portfolio to Strengthen RISC-V SoCs
Previously: RISC-V Projects to Collaborate
SiFive and UltraSoC Partner to Accelerate RISC-V Development Through DesignShare
SiFive Introduces RISC-V Linux-Capable Multicore Processor
SiFive HiFive Unleashed Not as Open as Previously Thought
Linux Foundation and RISC-V Proponents Launch CHIPS Alliance
Separately, a handful of RISC-V proponents launched the CHIPS Alliance, a project of the Linux Foundation to develop a broad set of open-source IP blocks and tools for the instruction set architecture. Initial members include Esperanto, Google, SiFive, and Western Digital. CHIPS stands for Common Hardware for Interfaces, Processors, and Systems.
Esperanto Technologies and SiFive look like the names to watch.
Related: First Open Source RISC-V Implementations Become Available
Western Digital Unveils RISC-V Controller Design
Raspberry Pi Foundation Announces RISC-V Foundation Membership
Western Digital Publishes RISC-V "SweRV" Core Design Under Apache 2.0 License
Alibaba Crafts A 16-Core RISC-V Chip @ 2.5GHz
Alibaba this week announced a RISC-V 64-bit processor comprised of 16 cores at 2.5GHz. The Chinese RISC-V CPU is fabbed at 12nm and this RISC-V processor supports out of order execution. This Alibaba design achieves a 7.1 Coremark/MHz rating, a great deal faster than any other publicly announced RISC-V processor. It's still not as fast as say the newest AMD Ryzen 9 or Intel Core i7/i9 parts, but it's certainly much better than all of the other RISC-V processors/SoCs we've seen announced to date. Unfortunately additional details on this Alibaba design are light.
Also at Tom's Hardware.
Related: Alibaba Cloud Climbs to Top 5
Linux Foundation and RISC-V Proponents Launch CHIPS Alliance
Qualcomm Invests in RISC-V Startup SiFive
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 15 2019, @02:30PM (4 children)
It is interesting to see open source principles applied to hardware.
As in the early days of software the GPL was necessary to prevent *cough* Microsoft from stealing open source code, while hoarding their own closed source code. (There I said it and named their name.)
Now talk about Hardware and name the name Intel. Would open source IP for hardware need to have a viral property like the GPL in order to prevent a rich entrenched monopolist from benefiting from the open source IP?
Or is a non-viral license okay, along with the risk that proprietary chips can leverage open source IP?
How would a viral clause work? It probably cannot forbid separate chip packages from interconnecting via traces on a circuit board. But it probably could / should (in order to be viral) prevent a closed / open combination of chips in a single 'package'. Or combining open / closed blocks in a single fabricated chip.
Disclaimer: I'm a software guy. I don't do hardware. And it probably shows. I think hardware is a necessary evil. If I could do it with all software and no hardware, I would. The cloud is not a realization. It merely hides the fact that there is still actual hardware behind it, elsewhere.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 15 2019, @02:49PM (2 children)
Open Sores!
...
Open hardware can be valuable for all parties. A company/org can get their standard adopted, manufacturers don't pay license fees, end user gets a cheaper, standardized product.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 15 2019, @03:29PM
I heard that term used pejoratively back in the Y! SCOX days. (SCO vs IBM)
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 15 2019, @03:37PM
Open Software can also be valuable for all parties.
In the Java-centric world where I live, there are TONS and TONS literally an embarrassment of open source riches. All interoperable. Mostly licensed under the Apache 2 license rather than GPL.
Using a license like Apache 2 (but also others MIT, BSD, and a few others) effectively greases the wheels of being able to use this software in closed commercial applications. And commercial users can contribute back. I understand that benefit. Also how Apache Tomcat is the most widely used application server, even though there are other Java app servers, including commercial ones. And standard frameworks, with books, commercial training courses, etc. A whole ecosystem. Multiple ecosystems around multiple frameworks.
But in the early days Microsoft was a genuine threat. The words Free Software were used and the phrase Open Source had not yet been invented. The viral license really was a protection. I'm assuming that open source hardware and chips are still in that early stage of the game where the open source guys can't yet write their own ticket like the open source software people can do today. Open source software is now eating the world -- so much that Microsoft is scrambling to embrace open source. But I don't think hardware is at that point where, say, Intel is, effectively, forced to deal with and embrace open source instead of working to try to undermine and thwart it. But I would be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @08:20PM
Looks like the TAPR and OHL both require reciprocity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware#Licenses [wikipedia.org]
"Viral" is probably not a very good term because the copyleft clauses are only triggered by somebody choosing to distribute derivatives.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @07:17PM (1 child)
Linux and Erik Estrada is an unbeatable combination!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 15 2019, @07:23PM
Oh my. Groan. grown
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @08:08PM (1 child)
i was glad to hear about this recently. open hardware (or at least trustable) is needed yesterday!
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday March 16 2019, @02:30AM
I absolutely agree. We need fully documented hardware. RISC-V seems like it might be alright, although I haven't looked too deeply into it.