Headline could read: "RISC-V adoption is 'inevitable' according to RISC-V advocate at RISC-V conference to people who are invested in RISC-V who had come to hear about state of RISC-V adoption".

I'm curious where the data is to support the argument.

I am struggling to see the adoption appetite outside of niche applications where licensing costs of existing architectures are a key barrier.

▲

ACCount37 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Currently, RISC-V actively shows up in embedded - especially "deep embedded" like specialized ASICs with embedded MCU cores.

It's often seen displacing things like 8051, ARM Cortex-M0, ARC/ARCompact, Xtensa and oddball fully custom cores.

It also starts to show up in low end Linux SoCs - often, again, purpose-specific ones, like SoCs for IP cameras or consumer electronics like robot vacuums and drones.

None of those are sexy "high end" applications, like laptops or smartphones, but the adoption is real.

▲

rzerowan 44 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I believe in microcontrollers its already pretty ubiquitous , see their utilisation by WesternDigital with their SwerV core thats already shipping since 2019. At speeds and complexity comparable to desktop/server cores from Intel/AMD they are still lagging in perf though improving as more cores get deployed. Also to add into the mix the whole geopolitics with non-US players hedging. So potential is there will just depend on what will be the base case like Windows was for Intel.

	▲	invokestatic 7 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Firmware & systems dev here, ARM still dominates in the microcontroller space. There are some niche offerings from major vendors but again they are niche. Espressif is the sole exception with their newer ESP32-C series chips, but they can get away with it due to their massive HAL. ARM Cortex is still the standard because there’s a decade or two of inertia behind it. An apt comparison would be C vs Rust. Yes, Rust may be growing in market share, but C still dominates.
	▲	hmry 14 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Notably the geopolitics can also cut the other way, e.g. US banning Chinese RISC-V chips to protect their domestic players. Especially now that intel is partially state-owned.