While Intel was interested to acquire RISC-V processor developer SiFive and SiFive is considering its strategic options, the companies could not agree neither on financial terms nor on how SiFive technologies could be used at Intel reports Bloomberg. The latter company is still considering both an initial public offering (IPO) as well as a takeover by a larger player.
SiFive is a world’s leading developer of RISC-V-based processor cores and a contract designer of system-on-chips. Earlier this year it was reported that Intel had offered $2 billion for the startup and the two companies entered negotiations over other terms. As it turns out, the companies reportedly could not agree on financial terms and on how SiFive technologies would be integrated into Intel’s roadmap. For obvious reasons, neither of the parties has issued a comment because the talks were private.
There are several reasons why Intel wanted to buy SiFive. Firstly, there are many applications that are beyond x86’s reach that Intel would certainly like to address. The x86 market is limited to perhaps 350 ~ 360 million units per year. If Intel manages to get into RISC-V world early enough, it will be able to offer its customers high-volume low-power solutions produced at its own fabs several years down the road, which will greatly diversify the company’s products offerings.
While Intel could certainly develop and offer its own RISC-V cores to attract designers of SoCs for emerging applications, taking over a renowned RISC-V company with IP, clients, and people familiar with the ISA could be a preferable way to enter the RISC-V world.
RISC-V is a dynamically developing open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that is supported by multiple industry giants, including Google, Huawei, and Western Digital. While previously RISC-V cores could only address simplistic microcontrollers, today they can be used for more demanding applications and even run Linux. Adopters of RISC-V do not have to pay royalties for ISA and some of RISC-V cores are available free of charge. Meanwhile, there are commercial RISC-V implementations that should be licensed from their developers, yet even in this case there is no need to pay for the ISA itself.
While Intel could certainly develop and offer its own RISC-V cores to attract designers of SoCs for emerging applications, taking over a renowned RISC-V company with IP, clients, and people familiar with the ISA could be a preferrable way to enter the RISC-V world.
RISC-V is a dynamically developing open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that is supported by multiple industry giants, including Google, Huawei, and Western Digital. While previously RISC-V cores could only address simplistic microcontrollers, today they can be used for more demanding applications and even run Linux. Adopters of RISC-V do not have to pay royalties for ISA and some of RISC-V cores are available free of charge. Meanwhile, there are commercial RISC-V implementations that should be licensed from their developers, yet even in this case there is no need to pay for the ISA itself.
Si-Five is ahead of many RISC-V adopters and has better chances to address emerging applications that are not yet addressed either by x86 or by Arm architectures. To develop more competitive offerings, SiFive reportedly plans to expand its CPU development team form 200 to 400 engineers, which is why it needs money, either from private investors or from large companies.