RISC-V Gets Expanded Stack Randomization With Linux 5.15

[phoronix]

Phoronix: RISC-V Gets Expanded Stack Randomization With Linux 5.15

In addition to the RISC-V changes merged last week for the Linux 5.15 kernel, a second batch of patches was merged this weekend...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RISC-V-Better-Stack-Rand

[uid313]

So what is happening in the RISC-V world? And what is the future of RISC-V?

Apple is hiring RISC-V developers, and Intel is interested in buying SiFive.
Are ARM going to lower the price of the Cortex-M series to keep customers from picking cheaper RISC-V alternatives?
Are companies just going to be interested in RISC-V to cut license costs in order to get higher profit margins?

Or is any company looking to build a TOP500 super computer with RISC-V?

[StarterX4]

So what is happening in the RISC-V world? And what is the future of RISC-V?

Apple is hiring RISC-V developers, and Intel is interested in buying SiFive.
Are ARM going to lower the price of the Cortex-M series to keep customers from picking cheaper RISC-V alternatives?
Are companies just going to be interested in RISC-V to cut license costs in order to get higher profit margins?

Or is any company looking to build a TOP500 super computer with RISC-V?

There could be a battle between RISC-V and ARM around taking the x86's market share, and most likely, ARM would just take the PCs, while RISC-V the rest (servers, mainframes, etc).

[PerformanceExpert]

There could be a battle between RISC-V and ARM around taking the x86's market share, and most likely, ARM would just take the PCs, while RISC-V the rest (servers, mainframes, etc).

That's very unlikely given that today there are no high performance RISC-V implementations (and the ISA still isn't suitable). Right now it's AMD and Arm taking server marketshare from Intel (Arm is at about 5%, AMD at 15%), and I don't see that changing in the next 5 years at least.

[tildearrow]

That's very unlikely given that today there are no high performance RISC-V implementations (and the ISA still isn't suitable). Right now it's AMD and Arm taking server marketshare from Intel (Arm is at about 5%, AMD at 15%), and I don't see that changing in the next 5 years at least.

Embedded!

In a future, our mice, keyboards, game controllers, hard drives, network routers, LED strips, smart home devices or even our beds will be powered by RISC-V.

[jayN]

I read some stories about the EU looking at RISC-V for supercomputers, in particular Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

https://www.bsc.es/news/bsc-news/bsc-working-towards-the-first-completely-open-source-european-full-stack-ecosystem-based-new-risc-v

[danmcgrew]

So what is happening in the RISC-V world? And what is the future of RISC-V?

Apple is hiring RISC-V developers, and Intel is interested in buying SiFive.
Are ARM going to lower the price of the Cortex-M series to keep customers from picking cheaper RISC-V alternatives?
Are companies just going to be interested in RISC-V to cut license costs in order to get higher profit margins?

Or is any company looking to build a TOP500 super computer with RISC-V?

Since all the answers (so far) are only speculation, here's mine (speculation):

1) Intel is only interested in RISC-V to quash any possible competition. If RISC-V sells out, it's a dead-end ("game over") for RISC-V.
2) ARM will do anything to fend off the very real threat of a RISC-V adoption by the entire industry. They've already tried a smear campaign. That didn't work. ARM Holdings has been distracted from further shenanigans such as this by trying to sell the ARM franchise. Too bad, as whatever ARM had in store to try next (against RISC-V) would have provided some more good entertainment, as well as some more very good laughs.
Speculation has it that ARM Holdings is very aware of the potential of RISC-V, is scared silly by it, and selling ARM now is ARM Holdings' way of "...gettin' out while the gettin's good...". This is probably the VERY BEST indication of the very bright future ahead for RISC-V. ARM can't compete, and knows it. Their only alternative?: Sell! (Who knows better than ARM itself whether or not what they've got in "the pipeline" is capable of countering the risk posed by ARM?)
3) Companies are going to be interested in RISC-V because of all its inherent features and benefits. ARM knows this; Intel knows this.

Remember that puny little operating system, started by some kid in his dorm room, who wanted to create a UNIX-like operating system which would run on his x-86 machine? ...that particular OS being called Linux?

[PerformanceExpert]

Embedded!

In a future, our mice, keyboards, game controllers, hard drives, network routers, LED strips, smart home devices or even our beds will be powered by RISC-V.

Almost all of RISC-V is aimed at embedded indeed. The embedded market is enormous and growing, so RISC-V will likely get a slice of that. I expect RISC-V will kill off a lot of older and custom ISAs. However despite owning much of the embedded market and mobiles, it took Arm a good part of a decade to get CPU and server designs competitive with x86. RISC-V is far less mature as an ISA and doesn't have anywhere near the level of investment as x86 or Arm.

[uxmkt]

Apple is hiring RISC-V developers, and Intel is interested in buying SiFive.

1) Intel is only interested in RISC-V to quash any possible competition. If RISC-V sells out, it's a dead-end ("game over") for RISC-V.

Don't confuse SiFive with RISC-V.

Almost all of RISC-V is aimed at embedded indeed.

That's what people once said about ARM, and look where it's now.

[danielnez1]

Don't confuse SiFive with RISC-V.

That's what people once said about ARM, and look where it's now.

The funny thing is that ARMs low power credentials were originally an unintentional side effect when Acorn were designing the ARM. I still remember the original Acorn Archimedes (and later A30XX/A4000/A5000 and RiscPC) machines at school.