AheadComputing is the name of the startup created by former Intel experts.
To explain what’s happening, we might as well talk about football. The scenario that is emerging in the world of semiconductors is a bit like if Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé suddenly decided to leave their clubs to form a football team in an alternative league.
It’s pretty much the equivalent of what just happened in the processor world. A team of Intel experts, seniors with over 80 years of experience under their belts, decided to drop everything and embark on the RISC-V adventure. But what does that mean in concrete terms, and why is it so important?
But what is RISC-V?
Let’s start at the beginning. RISC-V, pronounced “risk-five,” is a processor architecture that is nothing new.
Unlike proprietary architectures like Intel’s x86 or ARM, RISC-V is open source. This means that anyone can use it, modify it, and even create their own processors based on it without having to pay royalties.
To go further
Here is the first laptop to adopt the RISC-V architecture: what it changes compared to x86 and ARM
RISC-V is still a relatively new architecture, dating back to 2010, but it has already been used in a variety of applications, ranging from microcontrollers to supercomputers.
Operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD have already been ported to RISC-V and there are also compilers for common programming languages such as C, C++ and Rust. By the way, Android AOSP (the open source version of Android) supports RISC-V chips with some patches.
AheadComputing: the new startup created by former Intel employees
And that’s where AheadComputing, the startup created by our Intel experts, comes in. Officially founded on July 18, just a few weeks before Intel announced its massive layoffs (more on that later), the company’s mission is to design, validate, and license “compelling RISC-V core intellectual property.” Basically, they want to create the building blocks that will allow others to build cutting-edge RISC-V processors.
But who are these rebels who dared to challenge the giant Intel? We are talking about big names:
- Debbie Marr, chief architect at Intel for 33 years, with more than 40 patents to her name.
- Mark Dechene, chief engineer and CPU architect, involved in the development of iconic processors such as Haswell or Broadwell.
- Jonathan Pearce, 22 years at Intel and 19 patents, expert in advanced architecture.
- Srikanth Srinivasan, over 20 years of experience and 50 patents, having participated in the design of legendary chips like Nehalem.
Needless to say, this is not the first time they have touched a processor.
Of course, this defection couldn’t have come at a worse time for Intel. Intel has announced the biggest layoffs in its history, 56 years of it! We’re talking about thousands of employees on the floor. Add to that construction projects that are stalling and a brain drain, and you have a rather bitter cocktail for the processor giant.
But be careful, Intel should not be buried too quickly. The company has more than one trick up its sleeve and has already gone through crises in the past. However, this migration of experts to RISC-V raises questions. Is this a sign that Intel’s beloved x86 architecture is reaching the end of its tether? Or simply that RISC-V offers opportunities that even a giant like Intel cannot ignore?
Note that RISC-V is often considered an alternative to ARM and x86. But, it is still far from being a solid alternative. However, this could change quickly: imagine if a player… say Apple, adopts RISC-V to avoid paying royalties to ARM.
