Apple to Move a Part of Its Embedded Cores to RISC-V

by gcoguiecon 9/17/2022, 2:15 AMwith 48 comments

by Jtsummerson 9/17/2022, 3:44 AM

This is a two paragraph, highly speculative "summary" of [0] which was posted earlier [1].

But even reading the original article, it barely mentions Apple and CharlesW highly editorialized that submissions title:

The Apple bit:

> For example, Apple’s A15 has more than a dozen Arm-based CPU cores distributed across the die for various non-user-facing functions. SemiAnalysis can confirm that these cores are actively being converted to RISC-V in future generations of hardware.

The original title:

> SiFive Powers Google TPU, NASA, Tenstorrent, Renesas, Microchip, And More

The bulk of the article is about Google and hyping Risk-V, not Apple.

[0] https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/sifive-powers-google-tpu...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32872927

by Taniwhaon 9/17/2022, 3:14 AM

10 billion RISC-V cores were shipped last year - mostly you wont see them because they're heavily embedded - in disk drives/etc - used to be every flash drive had an ARM core in it and paid a few pennies to ARM, that's likely to change quickly

by systemvoltageon 9/17/2022, 3:41 AM

Jim Keller's slide [1] on RISC-V. Simple words. Grug like.

[1] https://www.techgoing.com/jim-keller-innovation-is-happening...

by SanjayMehtaon 9/17/2022, 4:19 AM

They had a job posting a few months ago which asked for RISC-V experience.

edit: they still have them.

https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/details/200349341/system-archit...

by kevmoo1on 9/17/2022, 3:25 AM

I wish I could buy stock in RISC-V (in the abstract).

See also today: https://twitter.com/SiFive/status/1570880204804849671

by snvzzon 9/17/2022, 3:31 AM

Testing the waters.

Notably, Apple was among main investors when ARM was a startup; they're not doing this to save in ARM fees.

by dagmxon 9/17/2022, 4:43 AM

This is based on Dylan Patel’s speculation, and he quite commonly just comes up with something that he wants to be reality and presents it as fact.

by tiffanyhon 9/17/2022, 4:28 AM

What benefits does RISC-V have over ARM besides it being open/free?

by ddinguson 9/17/2022, 4:13 PM

Apple end game:

Apple ISA. Might take them a decade, but in the end, they will eventually do all their own thing.

by thebitstickon 9/17/2022, 7:41 PM

riscv64gc-apple-darwin

by Melatonicon 9/17/2022, 4:08 AM

Bit of a RISC-Y manoeuvrer no?

*Badumph*