Being a reporter is like being the guy who’s trying to bail out the ocean. I know that there is always more to the story than the copy I just filed. My recent blog about RISC-V activities in China is typical.

As soon as my piece, entitled “Why RISC-V Lags in China,” posted on EE Times’ website, I got blowback from Yungang Bao, a professor at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

He requested that I set the record straight on three points.

中国开放指令生态（RISC-V）联盟

1. The China Open Instruction Ecosystem (RISC-V) Alliance, known as CRVA, led by ICT (Bao’s employer), is no splinter group. Backed by some 20 institutions including Tsinghua Univ., Peking Univ., Baidu, Alibaba, SMIC and Unisoc (Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA), CRVA strives to “build the open-source chip ecosystem for the world,” according to Bao.

2. ICT is not a member of the China RISC-V Industry Consortium (CRVIC) led by VeriSilicon. I got that wrong in my blog.

3. CRVA does not focus on “defense, satellite and other government-initiative related applications,” as my original EE Times blog stated. Bao promised that “ICT, as the leader of CRVA, will open source RISC-V based chip design to the world” to “lower the barrier of chip design.”

We stand corrected.

Why two RISC-V groups in China?

However, as important as are these details, the gist of what I pointed out in my original blog prevails. RISC-V activities in China are complex, and they are getting fragmented.

The United States right now has one RISC-V Foundation, which seems like enough. China has yet to explain why it needs more than one industry group to promote RISC-V. Even more mysterious is that there appears to be no direct communication or coordination between two apparently competitive industry groups.

On one hand, VeriSilicon-led China RISC-V Industry Consortium (CRVIC) says its mission is “commercialization of RISC-V in China.”

The group, with about 60 membership companies, hopes to track and share the measurable progress of RISC-V in China — including shipment of commercial RISC-V products, unit numbers, and universities courses teaching RISC-V. “We hope to offer RISC-V compliance services as well,” Wayne Dai, VeriSilicon CEO, told us.

On the other hand, the ICT-led China Open Instruction Ecosystem (RISC-V) Alliance, known as CRVA, claims to have a “three-step long-term plan” toward 2030. Bao explained as follows.

For a short-term goal, we will contribute to open source RISC-V IP core, peripheral IP blocks such as DDR and Bluetooth, which can form an open source SoC design. For a mid-term goal, we will demonstrate to the community how to use open source toolchain to carry on agile chip development based on open sourced RISC-V cores and IP blocks. For a long-term goal, we will make the open source chip design procedure as agile and automatic as possible, lowering the cost and barrier.



On the surface, CRVA appears more interested in developing an open-source toolchain to develop RISC-V cores and IP blocks. By contrast, CRVIC’s focus is more on commercializing RISC-V chips with emphasis on a variety of commercial IP blocks that can be smoothly plugged into RISC-V cores.

RISC-V in China remains firmly in the early adopter phase. Curiously, though, according to a Western company executive working with Chinese firms, a lot of the RISC-V designs are “still very low key and secret.”

But why keep it secret?

The Western executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, told us, “A lot of the biggest companies doing this are being very discrete indeed: perhaps they cannot afford to upset Arm.” He said they fear being told by Arm, “‘Oh, the core for your new smartphone is two weeks late.’”

Or, perhaps they simply see secrecy as a competitive edge, he added.

'Arm is now Chinese'

Further, RISC-V activities in China appear to be taking some twisted turns, because of Arm’s positioning in China, and China’s heavy investment in Arm.

One industry source in China reported water-cooler talk to the effect that “Arm is now Chinese.”

Let that sink in.

Earlier this year, Softbank Group, owner of the microprocessor IP firm Arm, announced that Arm will sell a 51% stake in Arm’s China unit to Chinese investors and ecosystem partners for $775.2 million to form a joint venture for Arm’s business in China.

Arm transferred its IP to the joint venture last May, enabling the Chinese operation to license its technology directly to local chip developers in China.

Softbank rationalized the move by stating that the deal will help boost opportunities for Arm in China.

Hou An, a controlling shareholder in the JV, is backed by the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, Silk Road Fund, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Shenzhen’s Shum Yip Group and Hopu, according to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. In this light, even though Arm is not exactly Chinese, China has an obvious vested interest in Arm’s success.

Driven by pressure from Arm and Chinese funds with a controlling interest in Arm, RISC-V activities are programmed to thrive in China. We were told that it’s not unusual to meet a Chinese executive publicly saying his company has “no RISC-V project” in the works after signing a RISC-V purchase order. We have also learned of at least one big firm whose email filters block the term “RISC-V,” thus prompting people to use “the project” as a substitute.

Even after RISC-V activities go public (Huami, Ingenic, Honey Badger and Nuclei System Technology are examples), they face complications because of the competing interests between China’s rival RISC-V consortiums.

For Chinese companies, designing RISC-V cores is hard enough. Surviving the political storm is an extra hassle they don’t need.