New RISC-V Kernel Features Ready For Linux 6.6

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New RISC-V Kernel Features Ready For Linux 6.6

Palmer Dabbelt sent out the initial batch of RISC-V processor architecture updates for the Linux 6.6 kernel port...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/RISC-V-Linux-6.6

[rmfx]

Updates for the only ISA that will matter

[ayumu]

RISC-V is rapidly growing the strongest ecosystem.

[CommunityMember]

Updates for the only ISA that will matter

I see you are still on the left side of Gartner's hype cycle.

[coder]

I see you are still on the left side of Gartner's hype cycle.

Good luck with that.

Anyone designing new CPU cores, from now on, is either using their own ISA (e.g. LoongArch) or RISC-V. Nobody who's not already using other ISAs (e.g. x86, ARM) is going to design CPU cores around anything other than RISC-V. Once the market gets big enough, even many of those entrenched players will switch allegiances.

Why am I so sure? Just look at APX. By adopting a subset of features found in ARM and RISC-V, Intel claims x86-64 can be made about 10% faster. That's at least a 10% deficit they'll be at, until APX-enabled processors finally launch, which might be too late to save that sinking chip.

Look at ARM - after it tried to extort Qualcomm for royalties from its customers, nobody new is going to build a custom ARM core to sell in chips on the open market, as Qualcomm and Ampere are currently doing. ARM was already disfavored by China, and now it's going to be limited to just those willing to license ARM's in-house cores + Apple (a special case, since they only sell full devices).

The energy, innovation, and investment is behind RISC-V. It can go nowhere but up.