The Alternative That Continues to Matter

SiFive was founded on one simple belief: that open source and mass customization are the answer to the end of conventional transistor scaling and escalating chip design costs. The free and open RISC-V ISA has been central to our vision of enabling a whole new range of applications for everyone — even the smallest company, inventor or maker. We wanted to free silicon — and we firmly believed that RISC-V was the critical first step.

After traveling a long road together, from inventing the RISC-V ISA, founding a company based on its potential, and bringing the first open-source chip into the world, we're excited to learn that an influential voice in the microprocessor industry has recognized that RISC-V will continue to be a disruptive force.

On Jan. 12, The Linley Group announced the winners of its annual Analysts’ Choice Awards, which recognize the top semiconductor products of 2016. We were surprised and honored to learn that RISC-V was selected as the Best Technology of 2016!

We not only appreciate the recognition of our work in contributing to the development of RISC-V, which Krste, Yunsup, Dave Patterson, and I started at UC Berkeley, but also the prestigious support for our vision for the future of the semiconductor industry.

Last year was a momentous one for RISC-V and SiFive. The open-source ISA gained support not only from academic partners but also from industry leaders such as Google, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm — and, of course, SiFive officially launched. We’re proud of the progress that RISC-V has made during the past year — and we truly believe that RISC-V as well as the Freedom Everywhere and Freedom Unleashed platforms will be the Alternatives that continue to Really Matter.