The open standard RISC-V instruction set architecture is rapidly expanding its global footprint, with China emerging as a significant force in its development and adoption. The upcoming RISC-V Summit China 2025 in Shanghai underscores the nation’s burgeoning contributions to the ecosystem. 

Andrea Gallo, CEO of RISC-V International, speaking in an interview with EE Times, remarked on the consistent global maturity of RISC-V, stating, “wherever we go in the world, we see the same level of maturity in adopting RISC-V, in working with RISC-V, the same level of technical expertise and contribution.” 

This observation, Gallo noted, aligns with the philosophy articulated by Calista Redmond, the former CEO of RISC-V International, to “invest locally and engage globally.” Gallo highlighted the parallelism seen across geographies, including Brazil, where thousands of students are reportedly building AI products based on RISC-V, affirming that he does not “see any differences across geographies and that is an incredible message to me.”

He further emphasized, “It’s a very positive, powerful message that wherever we go, we see the same level of academia, they’re all having similar levels of expertise and contribution.”

China’s strategic RISC-V pillars

China’s robust RISC-V development concentrates in three influential hubs: Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. The RISC-V China summit, organized locally, has historically rotated among these key locations—having been held in Beijing two years ago and Hangzhou last year—reflecting this distributed yet interconnected growth.

The open-source frontier with BOSC

Beijing hosts the Beijing Institute of Open-Source Chip (BOSC) initiative, led by Dr. Yungang Bao, a prominent figure in the open-source community.

BOSC has developed open-source RISC-V cores and provides comprehensive open-source design tools accessible via browsers. Gallo noted the striking similarity to an initiative in Brazil, where cloud-based tools allow for drag-and-drop RISC-V core building.

The Open Shangshan community, a key component of BOSC, marked an “amazing year” in 2024, according to a video interview with BOSC. They celebrated their “very first Shangshan developer conference in 2024,” which “gathered Shangshan developers, contributors, and partners to exchange ideas and share progress.”

Furthermore, BOSC also hosted an “open Shangshan verification context, teamed up with the UNJ verification team, that is a great success.” This initiative saw “many university students and professional engineers together to find bugs in Sanchan CPU, it was amazing,” noted Gallo.

He also commented that “[BOSC]mission is to promote RISC-V AI instruction set, contribute to open source software stack through treatment approach, deliver high-performance RISC-V AI IP, and finally gather upstream and downstream partners to make the commercialization of RISC-V AI products.”

Hanzhou: Alibaba’s XuanTie prowess

The Damo Academy, a research and development arm of Alibaba, is based in Hangzhou.

Under its XuanTie brand, Alibaba leverages its formidable capabilities in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and big data to drive innovation and build an open-source ecosystem for RISC-V.

XuanTie’s declared mission is to provide “powerful, intelligent, secure, and open new computing architectures and reliable IP for the digital era,” said Gallo.

XuanTie has introduced advanced processors such as the C930 and C908X. The XuanTie C930 is an ultra-performance, server-oriented 64-bit multi-core processor, featuring a superscalar, out-of-order execution microarchitecture with a 16-stage pipeline.

It is compatible with the RISC-V RVA23 Profile and supports numerous extensions, designed for high-performance computing in areas like PCs, servers, and autonomous driving, achieving a SPECint2006 score exceeding 15/GHz.

Growing hub in Shanghai

Shanghai is identified as another “big poll” in China’s RISC-V landscape. It is already home to significant corporate entities like Nuclei, which offers RISC-V parts certified for automotive standards (ISO 26262).

Industry and academia converge

The RISC-V summit in China typically features a robust mix of academic and corporate participants, a dynamic characteristic of the country’s technology landscape.

Major Chinese companies, including Huawei, HiSilicon, and SMIC, are actively investing in RISC-V tools and development. These collective efforts highlight China’s accelerating role in the global proliferation of the open standard RISC-V architecture.

From EETimes