Poor article
One of the most attractive things about RISC-V over Softbank-owned Arm is the relatively low cost of building chips based on the tech, especially for highly commoditized use cases like embedded processors
The type of architecture has very little to do with the cost of actually making the chips. Maybe he means designing them? But RISC chips (in the form of MIPS, et al.) have been in embedded controllers for decades. The licence fees for ARMs own microcontrollers mean that they're still competitive in this area, though every wants to move up the value chain because these chips are all, er, as cheap as chips.
The article then goes on to say that both CPUs are possible but there's currently no indication that there's anything remotely as powerful as ARM or x86 out there or on the horizon.
Powerful RISC-V designs are possible but China is still a long way from having the skills to design them. But, perhaps more importantly, it is even further away from being able to build the machines that can make them. However, I also agree that the sanctions applied to China will probably be counter productive over time. There we implemented largely on the basis of a whim to try and please crowds. But, until America can have Christmas without Chinese made tat, they're never really going to make an impact.®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
