Chinese chip company SophGo develops 64-core RISC-V chip with firm SiFive

By Kate Yuan

(JW Insights) Nov 15 -- Chinese chip maker SophGo (算能) is developing a RISC-V chip based on designs from the U.S. company SiFive, reported HPCwire on November 13.

Sophgo is developing the SG2380 high-performance chip based on designs in the RISC-V community. The company also announced a new SG2044 chip that it plans to release next year.

The SG2380 has a 16-core SiFive P670 design and is connected to SiFive’s X280 accelerator. SiFive, based in the U.S., makes chips based on the RISC-V design.

Sophgo started as Sophon in 2016, developing bitcoin mining hardware. Sophgo was established in 2020 and was focused on developing A.I. chips. Sophon and SophGo merged in 2021 and shipped its first CPU, SG2042, in 2022.

RISC-V is gaining clout as an open standard in chip architecture, much like Ethernet, USB, and HTTPS. It is a free alternative to proprietary architectures like x86 and ARM and has the backing of top companies like Apple, Google, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

Companies can take a RISC-V and develop their homegrown chip around it. It can be faster and at a lower cost compared to proprietary architecture. Meta and Qualcomm recently said they would design future chips on RISC-V.

RISC-V is like Linux because it is a borderless standard with worldwide contributors. Companies like SiFive voluntarily contribute open designs to the larger community, which anyone in designing chips can adopt. Regardless of location, the community jointly works to improve chip designs.

But the meteoric rise of RISC-V has come with problems. There were US congressmen calling for restricting the cooperation of US-based RISC-V companies with Chinese companies.

However, RISC-V International, which is based in Switzerland and behind the development of the standard, has come out strongly against any governmental interference, saying it would limit innovation.

At the RISC-V Summit last month, attendees worldwide strongly opposed any type of regulation.

“Nobody ever in the right mind would say let’s stop sharing Ethernet,” said Mark Himelstein, chief technology officer at RISC-V, during a breakout session at the SC23 show in Denver.

SiFive has been struggling with staff layoffs, but regulating the company from sharing its tech could hurt the company and its contributions even further, said the HPCwire report.