The Next Big Tech War Front: RISC-V

Cluster computing in cloud computing involves using multiple nodes or computers to form a single unit, enabling the system to handle heavier workloads than any computer could run.

Cluster computing can be used in various data-intensive applications ranging from machine learning to financial modeling to scientific simulations. First announced in October, the RISC-V cloud-based server cluster was achieved by T-Head and Sophgo in collaboration with Shandong University.

Sophgo is a developer of RISC-V processors and other open-source computing solutions headquartered in Beijing. The company has R&D centers in more than 10 Chinese cities targeting cloud computing, deep learning, data analytics, video, security, infrastructure and healthcare.

The RISC-V cloud server cluster utilizes processors designed by both T-Head and Sophgo and open-source Linux software. The Linux Foundation and the RISC-V Foundation have been collaborating since 2018.

“Each day, thousands of engineers around the world collaborate and contribute to advance RISC-V, the open-standard instruction set architecture that is defining the future of open computing,” the RISC-V organizers wrote in their introduction to the recent summit.

“The RISC-V community shares the technical investment and helps shape the architecture's strategic future so everyone may create more rapidly, enjoy unprecedented design freedom, and substantially reduce the cost of innovation. Anyone, anywhere can benefit from these contributions,” the organizers said.

But not if US Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) and his colleagues have their way.

On November 1, they sent a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo“to express our concerns about the national security risks posed by the People's Republic of China's (PRC) significant involvement in RISC-V and the organization's semiconductor chip design architecture with the explicit purpose of undermining US export controls and leapfrogging our technological leadership in chip design.”

Gallagher is chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. The letter was also signed by Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), ranking member of the Committee, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and 15 other members of Congress.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm were copied on the letter. The letter declared that“Urgent action is needed to prevent US technology and technical know-how from contributing to the PRC's utilization of this technology.”

Not only is China seeking to use RISC-V to achieve technological self-sufficiency, it aspires to become an“open-source power” and already accounts for half of all RISC-V chips sold worldwide, the letter said.

This could happen because“RISC-V allows the PRC to use open-source architecture to develop advanced chips without needing a license from the US government.”

The letter recommends that all US individuals or companies engaging with China on RISC-V or any other computer instruction set architecture must receive US government licenses, even though RISC-V International is headquartered in Switzerland

The signatories compiled a list of questions for Secretary Raimondo, for which they would like answers by December 1, 2023. The questions include:

• What is the administration's plan to prevent the PRC from achieving dominance in the RISC-V technology and leveraging that dominance at the expense of US national and economic security?

• What are the potential national security risks posed by the expanding use of RISC-V technology? How do existing US government policies related to the use of open-source technologies in sensitive systems address these risks?

• How is the administration working with US companies to address these potential security risks associated with these technologies?

• How could the administration apply the authorities provided by the Executive Order 14017 on Securing America's Supply Chains to address the risks posed by RISC-V to cyber security and US industry?

• How would PRC dominance in RISC-V hardware affect the cybersecurity concerns related to internet of things and its application to critical infrastructure?

How the Biden administration responds will be a good indicator of how much, if at all, US-China tech tensions have eased since Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in California at last week's APEC summit.

The letter rightly points out that the intellectual property used to design ICs is currently dominated by Western companies such as Arm, Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

US-based RISC-V IP companies including SiFive, Andes, Qualcomm, Google and others have already been banned from selling their technology to Chinese companies on the Commerce Department's Entity List without a license.

That, however, is not enough for Gallagher and his colleagues, who write that“the United States should build a robust ecosystem for open-source collaboration among the US and our allies while ensuring the PRC is unable to benefit from that work.”

To do that would require either competing with or expelling China from the RISC-V International organization. Some European politicians might agree with that, but the US politicians who signed the letter are either not aware of or have seemingly ignored the EU's RISC-V policy.

In February, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) announced plans to form a partnership with industry, research institutions, supercomputing centers and other organizations to develop a European high-performance computing (HPC) ecosystem based on RISC-V.

Its mission is to develop, deploy, extend and maintain world-leading supercomputing, quantum computing and related services and data infrastructure in Europe. This is to be supported by a secure supply chain with a wide range of applications contributing to the development of European science and industry.

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The European Chips Act has identified RISC-V as one of the next-generation technologies in which Europe should invest to build and reinforce its capacity to innovate in the design, manufacturing and packaging of advanced, energy-efficient and secure integrated circuits, and turn them into marketable products ranging from micro-controllers to high-end chips used in data centers and supercomputers, the EuroHPC JU's website says.

The EU sees a future in RISC-V technology. Image: Silicon Republic / Facebook

The technology should be linked to its use in industry in order to make sure that it addresses European market needs and“contributes to digital sovereignty beyond scientific HPC,” the website says.

“RISC-V technology is a credible energy-efficient alternative to the proprietary solutions for processors and accelerators across the computing continuum that are produced outside the EU.”

In other words, RISC-V is an alternative to Arm, Intel, AMD and Nvidia. Many US politicians view RISC-V as part of a new Cold War in the tech realm. The EU, like China, views it as a way to escape US dominance of advanced computing.

It remains to be seen whether the US will subvert open-source technology in what will likely amount to a futile attempt to protect and maintain its high-tech hegemony.

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