An image of what could be the first-ever laptop powered by a RISC-V processor has been teased by the body responsible for bringing the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) to the general public.
The image featured at the end of a presentation given in Paris earlier this month by Philipp Tomsich, who leads the RISC-V International software committee.
“The big question everyone is asking…[is whether] we will see the first RISC-V laptop announced this year,” he said. “There’s a mysterious laptop in the photo on the right, and I’ll leave you all with the question: could there already be a RISC-V in this one?”
RISC-V moving forward
RISC-V is a free and open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) built around the same design principles as Arm’s proprietary cores, which command royalties each time they are integrated into an SoC.
At the moment, RISC-V based CPUs are much less common than Arm or x86 based chips, but the movement seems to be gaining momentum.
For example, China now relies heavily on RISC-V in hopes of minimizing its dependence on Western semiconductor companies. And even Intel is meddling in the space, having presumably come to the conclusion that x86 can’t compete for long-term power efficiency.
The recent success of Arm-based processors like Apple’s M-series chips is proof that RISC designs have a future in the PC and workstation market, which has not been lost on RISC- V International.
The organization has been open about its ambitions to make the world’s first RISC-V-based laptop a reality by the end of the year. So far, there have been few details to work out, but the recent tease will give the community something to get excited about.
No one can guess if the specific laptop pictured in the presentation turns out to be the real deal, but the nature of the clue suggests that RISC-V International is confident in its planned timeline.
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