One of the main components of a smartphone or any device, is the System on a Chip, or as we say in general terms, a "processor" or a CPU, in the case of personal computers. From Intel's first ever processor, the 4004, to one of the most popular processors of its time, the Intel 8006, there has been a rapid evolution of instruction set architectures including both the CISC and RISC instruction sets used by Intel/AMD and ARM, respectively. And now there's a new kid in town (Well, RISC-V is pretty old and was founded in 2010. However, it's still relatively new compared to ARM). Here's everything you need to know about RISC-V and why it's so important not only to Android and WearOS, but to Qualcomm and many other investors in the same cause.
Dr. Ian Cutress explains the hype surrounding RISC-V
RISC-V, pronounced "risk five", is an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) like ARM and RISC, but unlike them, it is completely license-free and open source. To begin with, think of instruction set architecture as a medium that connects hardware and software. It defines and dictates how both hardware and software work to produce results, i.e. the result a user wants. It could be a button press in a user interface or sending complex instructions while playing a game.
RISC-V ISA is flexible and more efficient, and one of the main reasons companies invest in it is because it is open source and does not require them to pay license fees.
Now, given the name "RISC-V" you might think of it as some sort of successor to RISC and no, that's not true. RISC is proprietary and is used by ARM to distribute instructions to companies such as Samsung, Qualcomm and Apple. They get to use these "instructions" to make their own SoCs. RISC-V, on the other hand, involves no middlemen. It's completely free and open source, meaning companies can take the instructions without paying huge licensing fees like they would for ARM, and start building a processor on RISC-V ISA.
