On April 9, Bao Yungang, deputy director of the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed the launch of the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute, which was formed at the end of 2021. Known as Kaixin Institute in Chinese, it was formed by leading tech companies and research institutes in China, and is aimed at accelerating the development of RISC-V technology, in particular the high-performance open-source processor project, Xiangshan. RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture for chips that has experienced wider adoption over the past decade. The introduction to the research institute notes that it has created more than 200 jobs related to the semiconductor industry.
The best part is that they have a track record of actually open sourcing their designs! RISC-V isn’t copyleft so they weren’t required to, so they definitely chose to.
Unlike US companies that just like RISC-V because it has no licensing fee, uses it to make the same locked down proprietary chips as they would have with ARM, and don’t actually contribute to the ecosystem.
Really, it’s good even for American people, just not for their regime.
The best part is that they have a track record of actually open sourcing their designs! RISC-V isn’t copyleft so they weren’t required to, so they definitely chose to.
Unlike US companies that just like RISC-V because it has no licensing fee, uses it to make the same locked down proprietary chips as they would have with ARM, and don’t actually contribute to the ecosystem.
For sure, it’s really great to see people working in the open.