CHIPS Alliance: new project under Linux Foundation for open chips

CHIPS Alliance

Free and open source software is something that has obsessed us for a long time, but open-source or free hardware is something that is still light years away when compared to the world of software. There are several free hardware architectures and projects (just take a tour of opencores.org to see some examples), but it still needs a big boost so that we can all benefit from it. A great hope is RISC-V, an open ISA and from which some projects of free processors or SoCs feed.

Well, giving that impulse is what the project intends CHIPS Alliance under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation. CHIPS stands for Common Hardware for Interfaces, Processors and Systems, that is, common hardware for interfaces, processors and systems. It is intended to promote open or free hardware systems and develop future chips based on the aforementioned ISA RISC-V.

Behind the CHIPS Alliance is not only the Linux Foundation, which supports them, but there are large companies such as Google, SiFive, Western Digital, Esperanto Technologies, etc. You already know that SiFive is a fabless company that has already launched the famous chips or processors based on RISC-V. As you know, this ISA is based on the RISC design, but it has been opened and is being developed by a large number of well-known companies in the sector.

RISC-V, you know that it is in turn under the organization of the RISC-V Foundation, which has a large number of collaborating companies as you know. From there, they are only responsible for developing the instructions that make up the ISA, and others are responsible for implementing microarchitectures to run said ISA. Now, with the CHIPS Alliance, a standard chip design and open for mobile devices, PCs and also consumer electronics and IoT.

I hope it matures soon and we see some more ICs than already exist… Also, you already know that RISC-V is supported by Linux kernel since version 4.15.


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