5 ms·
I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years
by mcdow 5mo ago
I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer in 20 years
- znpy 5mo agounironically, this. i've been hearing about arm computer for almost twenty years and only just recently general-purpose decently-priced arm laptops have been released (qualcomm laptops, the macbook neo). and arm desktop are still not a thing, in practice.
- Joker_vD 5mo agoWell, Apple M1/M2/etc. are, technically, ARMv8, and they're available as desktops.
- Joeboy 5mo agoAlso the Acorn Archimedes is, technically, an ARM / RISC desktop.
- bluebarbet 5mo agoDistant memories of a 1980s London classroom.
- znpy 5mo agothey're not general-purpose in the sense that you can run any operating system nor they're decently priced.
- andai 5mo agoI think the Surface Laptops (2018?) count, and arguably the previous models (2012+) sorta-kinda count (tablet + keyboard). Side note: It's kinda funny to me that "the keyboard is detachable, the screen is glass and you can touch/write on it" makes it "lesser" than a laptop rather than being an upgrade. But yeah, definitely happy to see more in this space. Now we just need e-Paper laptops to take off as well :)
- mavhc 5mo agoI have an ARM desktop from 1986 or 1987 https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Computers/A500.html https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Computers/A500.h...
- znpy 5mo agotechnically true, practically irrelevant.
- heresie-dabord 5mo ago> arm desktop are still not a thing The desktop market is not the only product space anymore. Apple has had brilliant success with its ARM processors, proving that ARM is more than capable. Before Apple's switch, Chromebooks had been using ARM since 2011. Android is the dominant operating system in mobile and most Android devices use the ARM platform. Many of these devices have desktop capability -- they are a viable convergence platform.
- 3abiton 5mo agoWhile its current performance is not competitive, there are currently interesting options. I got the orange pi riscv version, mainly to test riscv while it's slow compared to other arm socs, it's still better than I expected. There are even risc v TPUs now.
- ninth_ant 5mo agoThis underestimates the will of governments and companies Europe and especially China to reduce their dependency on US-controlled technology.
- Tostino 5mo agoI hope our complacent companies get a shot of competition.
- wk_end 5mo agoARM isn't US controlled, is it? British and also now Japanese since it's owned by SoftBank. Meanwhile, wouldn't China be more heavily invested in Longsoon?
- hajile 5mo agoARM is British (America’s closest ally) and proprietary. If you’re swapping, just eliminate the risk and cost entirely. LoongArch is 32-bit instructions only. This means no MCUs due to poor code density. That forces them into RISCV anyway at which point, you might as well pour all your money and dev time into one ISA instead of two. RISCV has way more worldwide investment meaning LoongArch looks like a losing horse in the long term when it comes to software.
- gggmaster 5mo agoQuite the contrary, the fragmented ecosystem is holding RISC-V back. There are currently 3 variants of LoongArch ISA. The reduced 32-bit version targets MCUs. And LoongArch64 ATX/MATX motherboards with UEFI support is readily available. This makes it far more easier to develop with LoongArch.
- hajile 5mo agoWhat evidence do you have that RISC-V is being held back by fragmentation? Every upcoming general purpose RISC-V core I'm aware of is targeting RVA23. That's even less fragmentation than x86 has. Meanwhile, I don't know of ANY third-party chip designs using LoongArch, so asserting no fragmentation seems to be misrepresenting the situation a bit.
- aappleby 5mo agoYou're probably already using a RISC-V computer, it's just embedded as a supervisor in some other gadget (or vehicle) you own.
- themafia 5mo agoI look forward to running my _own_ software on a RISC-V computer.
- HankB99 5mo agoI already do: https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c3 https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c3 The tool chains that Espressif seem to work pretty well with these as well as their earlier (some sort of RISC) processors. I have had some code, however, that did not produce desired results until I upgraded the toolchain. The other issue I've run into is that some cell phone battery packs that work well with Raspberry Pis won't stay on with the RISC-V ESPs because they draw so little power the battery pack doesn't detect the load.
- IshKebab 5mo agoI think 10 years is a more realistic estimate. Probably first in servers and Android phones.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 5mo agoThey are everywhere already in microcontrollers like ESP32.
- IshKebab 5mo agoYeah but op was talking about directly using a RISC-V computer. The embedded RISC-V CPUs are effectively black boxes.
- LeFantome 5mo agoHyperscalers are using RISC-V servers today. Here is an example from SiFive (USA). https://www.sifive.com/blog/investing-in-our-next-chapter-of-growth https://www.sifive.com/blog/investing-in-our-next-chapter-of... And here is an example of Alibaba using RISC-V for inference and training in the cloud: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/08/china-alibaba-data-center-ai-chips-zhenwu.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/08/china-alibaba-data-cente... Those are both up and running today. And of course there is Tenstorrrent: https://tenstorrent.com/ip/risc-v-cpu https://tenstorrent.com/ip/risc-v-cpu
- wg0 5mo ago[flagged]
- bityard 5mo agoI already have one! (But it's technically a soldering iron...)
- LeFantome 5mo agoPinecil?
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- LeFantome 5mo ago> I’m looking forward to using a RISC-V computer I may be using this one soon: https://store.deepcomputing.io/products/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii-for-framework-laptop-13-early-access-program https://store.deepcomputing.io/products/dc-roma-risc-v-mainb...