RISC-V chip technology has triggered a new round of scientific and technological war between China and the United States
Hello everyone, I am Xiao A, a senior writer of Toutiao. Recently, a news about the U.S. government's censorship of China's use of RISC-V open-source chip technology has sparked a heated discussion in the global tech community.
RISC-V is an emerging open-source instruction set architecture that can be used and modified by anyone for free. It can be used to design a wide range of chips and processors, from smartphones to artificial intelligence systems. Due to its openness and flexibility, RISC-V has attracted the favor of technology giants including Alibaba, Huawei, and Google, and has become a new strategic competition position between China and the United States in the field of advanced chip technology.
Some US politicians and lawmakers have expressed concern about this. They argue that Chinese companies could undermine U.S. dominance in chips and help China modernize its military by leveraging the culture of openness and collaboration between U.S. companies and RISC-V open source projects to advance their own semiconductor industry.
They began to put pressure on the Biden administration to take action to limit the participation of American companies in the development and application of RISC-V technology. Among them was McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who bluntly pointed out that "China is abusing RISC-V to circumvent U.S. dominance in chip design intellectual property."
Faced with pressure from Congress, the U.S. Department of Commerce had to respond. They said they were "reviewing potential risks and assessing whether action is needed." The Department of Commerce also stressed the need to exercise caution to avoid harming U.S. companies involved in the development of RISC-V technology.
This move immediately sparked widespread attention and heated discussions in the global technology industry. On the one hand, people are worried that the restrictions on RISC-V technology in the United States may disrupt the cooperation ecology of the global chip industry and hinder technological innovation. On the other hand, there are also views that the US approach is out of the need to maintain national security and technological dominance.
RISC-V technology has triggered a new round of wrestling between China and the United States
In this Sino-US technology war, the RISC-V open-source chip architecture has undoubtedly become a new focus. On the one hand, the U.S. government is worried that Chinese companies will use the openness of RISC-V to circumvent existing export controls and catch up with the United States in the field of chip design. On the other hand, Chinese companies have taken a fancy to the flexibility and free characteristics of RISC-V, and regard it as an important way to achieve independent and controllable chips.
This apparent conflict of interest has led to tensions between the two sides over the RISC-V issue. U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly urged the administration to introduce restrictions to prevent China from taking the lead in RISC-V. Their main point is that China is abusing RISC-V to circumvent the U.S. dominance in chip intellectual property, and if left unchecked, China will one day surpass the United States as a global leader in chip design.
Under pressure from Congress, the Commerce Department had to say it was "reviewing potential risks and assessing whether action is needed." They also recognize that this requires caution to avoid hurting U.S. companies involved in RISC-V International. As an open source standard, RISC-V is inseparable from global collaboration and contributions.
According to the RISC-V Foundation, more than 4,000 companies and institutions around the world have joined this camp, and more than 80% of their corporate members are from China. These Chinese companies have not only made important contributions to the research and development of RISC-V architecture, but also accounted for half of the global production and sales of RISC-V chips.
For Chinese companies, RISC-V is indeed an opportunity. Due to its open-source and free nature, RISC-V helps to break through the blockade of key chip technologies in the United States and achieve independent control. The flexible and tailorable architecture of RISC-V also enables Chinese enterprises to customize and develop chip products that meet their needs according to different application scenarios.
Chinese tech giants have joined the RISC-V camp. Alibaba's self-developed "Xuantie" series processors are based on the RISC-V architecture; Huawei regards RISC-V as an important pillar for chip independence. ZTE, Xiaomi and other companies are also actively deploying in the RISC-V field.
RISC-V leads the new pattern of chips, and the wrestling between China and the United States intensifies
Throughout the development history of RISC-V, we can see that this open-source chip architecture is leading the new pattern of the global chip industry. On the one hand, RISC-V's openness and flexibility have made it widely used in emerging fields such as the Internet of Things, edge computing, and artificial intelligence, and has become an important force to promote technological innovation. On the other hand, it has also become a new strategic competition position for Chinese and American technology powers in the field of chips.
For Chinese enterprises, RISC-V is undoubtedly an important way to achieve independent and controllable chips. Due to its open-source and free nature, RISC-V helps break through the US blockade of key chip technologies and get rid of dependence on Western companies. We have seen Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Huawei, and ZTE join the RISC-V camp and have made many breakthroughs.
Taking Alibaba as an example, its subsidiary Pingtou Semiconductor has developed a series of high-performance chips based on the RISC-V architecture, which supports the operation of more than 170 mainstream artificial intelligence models. RISC-V chips are also expected to play a role in automotive electronics, data centers and other fields.
The vigorous promotion of RISC-V by Chinese companies has also triggered a high degree of vigilance in the US government. Some members of Congress have pointed out that China is "abusing RISC-V to circumvent U.S. dominance in chip intellectual property." They demanded that the Biden administration take action to prevent China from taking the lead in this area.
The Commerce Department said it was "reviewing potential risks and assessing whether action is needed." But they are also aware that due to the open-source nature of RISC-V, any excessive restrictions could hurt the U.S. companies involved and even cause the U.S. to lose influence in this area.
RISC-V is becoming a new battlefield in the contest between Chinese and American technological powers. A new round of wrestling around this open-source chip architecture is quietly unfolding.
No matter how it evolves in the future, the concept of openness and sharing represented by RISC-V will continue to promote the innovation and development of the global chip industry. As stated by the RISC-V International Foundation, RISC-V "for the first time, allows all businesses and developers to contribute their wisdom fully and freely."
Chinese companies and engineers will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in this process. Judging from the current data, China has become the largest contributor to the world's RISC-V chips, accounting for more than half of the market share.