国外芯片五大玩家联手组建了另一家RISC-V合资企业

news2024/9/27 7:22:42

原文链接：https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/04/chip_companies_risc_v/

以下是正文

Initial drive starts in Germany, pushes automotive blueprints

最初的驱动从德国开始，推动汽车蓝图

The RISC-V open instruction set architecture got a boost today after it emerged that five chip giants are coming together to jointly invest in a company to develop reference architectures based on the standard.

今天，五家芯片巨头联合投资一家公司开发基于该标准的参考架构后，RISC-V开放指令集架构得到了提振。

The new entity will be formed in Germany with investment from Infineon Technologies, Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, Bosch, and Nordic Semiconductor, with the aim of speeding up "the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture."

新实体将在德国成立，由英飞凌科技、高通、恩智浦半导体、博世和北欧半导体投资，旨在加快“基于开源RISC-V架构的未来产品的商业化”。

If this sounds a bit vague, it is because the company's formation is subject to regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions, and so at this stage the founding corporations are unable to add any further detail about how much investment is involved, when it is expected to begin operations, or even what the company will be called.

如果这听起来有点模糊，那是因为公司的成立需要各个司法管辖区的监管批准，因此在现阶段，创始公司无法添加任何关于涉及多少投资、预计何时开始运营，甚至公司将被称为什么的细节。

What we do know is that this will not be a chip manufacturing operation, but will focus on the creation of reference designs to help increase the adoption of the RISC-V architecture. The aim is to establish the company as a single source for developing compatible RISC-V-based products.

我们所知道的是，这不会是芯片制造业务，而是将专注于创建参考设计，以帮助增加RISC-V架构的采用。目的是将公司建立为开发兼容的基于RISC-V的产品的单一来源。

Given the involvement of NXP and Infineon, it is perhaps not surprising the initial focus will be around automotive applications, with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT ecosystems.

鉴于NXP和英飞凌的参与，最初的重点将集中在汽车应用上，最终扩展到包括移动和物联网生态系统，这也许不足为奇。

A spokesperson for Infineon told us the RISC-V company may operate more like a consultancy, and hinted at the possibility of some sort of branding or labelling that others which make chips based on the reference architecture will be able to use to show their compatibility with the standard.

英飞凌的发言人告诉我们，RISC-V公司的运营可能更像是一家咨询公司，并暗示了某种品牌或标签的可能性，其他基于参考架构制造芯片的公司将能够用来显示其与标准的兼容性。

Infineon plans to sell products employing RISC-V alongside other kit using existing well-established microcontroller cores, the spokesperson said.

发言人说，英飞凌计划销售使用RISC-V的产品以及使用现有成熟的微控制器核心的其他套件。

In a canned statement accompanying the announcement, NXP Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Lars Reger said the joint will try to "pioneer fully certified RISC-V-based IP and architectures, initially for the automotive industry."

在公告附带的一份罐头声明中，NXP执行副总裁兼首席技术官Lars Reger表示，该合资企业将试图“为汽车行业提供完全认证的基于RISC-V的IP和架构的先驱。”

"The creation of a one-stop-shop ecosystem where customers can select turnkey assets will strengthen the adoption of RISC-V across many European industries," Reger added.

Reger补充说，创建一个客户可以选择交钥匙资产的一站式生态系统，将加强RISC-V在许多欧洲行业的采用。

The President of Infineon's Automotive Division Peter Schiefer said that as vehicles become software-defined, there is a general need for standardization and ecosystem compatibility across the industry.

英飞凌汽车部总裁Peter Schiefer表示，随着车辆成为软件定义，整个行业普遍需要标准化和生态系统兼容性。

Qualcomm's involvement is of note, as the chipmaker is embroiled in a legal spat with Arm over licensing, and has previously hinted that it might, at some point, favour RISC-V over the Arm architecture for products including its popular Snapdragon smartphone chips. Qualcomm is also involved in the automotive sector, especially for dashboard systems.

高通的参与是值得注意的，因为这家芯片制造商与Arm在许可问题上陷入了法律争端，此前曾暗示，在某个时候，它可能会在包括其流行的骁龙智能手机芯片在内的产品中偏爱RISC-V而不是Arm架构。高通还涉足汽车行业，特别是仪表板系统。

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"We believe RISC-V's open-source instruction set will increase innovation and has the potential to transform the industry," Qualcomm SVP of Product Management Ziad Asghar, said in a supplied statement.

高通产品管理高级副总裁Ziad Asghar在一份提供的声明中表示，我们相信RISC-V的开源指令集将增加创新，并具有改造行业的潜力。

Although this latest development targets processor designs, the Linux Foundation and a bunch of big names in tech announced in June an initiative to make more software available for RISC-V platforms.

尽管这一最新开发以处理器设计为目标，但Linux基金会和一群科技巨头在6月份宣布了一项为RISC-V平台提供更多软件的倡议。

Dubbed RISE for RISC-V Software Ecosystem, this is intended to improve the availability of RISC-V software across a range of industry sectors, including mobile, datacenter and automotive.

RISC-V软件生态系统被称为RISE，旨在提高RISC-V软件在移动、数据中心和汽车等一系列行业部门的可用性。

评论一下：

无论如何，这确实对进一步提振行业对RISC-V的信心具有重要的意义。对于中国的视角，不能说全部是有利的。在中国，如果不进一步加大对RISC-V的投入，如果追求短期回报，我们也许会再次错过一个时代。这不得不让我想起“红旗”操作系统的故事。分享包云岗老师的一篇文章。