Focus Is RISC-V marching into a legal minefi eld?
By Arfan Ghani, Professor of Computer Engineering at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah, and Director, Neuromorphic Engineering Lab, United Arab Emirates
R
ISC-V, the open standard instruction set architecture (ISA), is quietly reshaping processor design. By
eliminating licensing fees and proprietary restrictions, it has enabled startups, researchers and semiconductor newcomers to create custom CPUs and accelerators on a more level playing fi eld. In a landscape long dominated by architectures like ARM and x86, RISC-V off ers a welcome shiſt . According to market analysis house, SNS Insider, the RISC-V market was valued at $1.44bn in 2024, projected to reach $11.50bn by 2032, growing at a compound annual rate of nearly 30%. However, while the ISA itself is royalty-free,
its implementations are not free from legal risks. T e architecture may be open, but it exists within a patent-heavy environment, presenting increasing challenges for developers and startups. Many developers are pushing ahead with innovative designs, unaware of the intellectual property complexities that accompany hardware development. If leſt unaddressed, it could threaten the very openness this movement champions. As most mainstream chip standards and
architectures are predominantly controlled by major commercial entities such as Intel, AMD and ARM, access to high-performance semiconductor designs has increasingly become a matter of strategic concern. Export controls now restrict the sale of advanced chip technologies to China and other countries, aiming to limit their ability to produce cutting-edge semiconductors. In this context, RISC-V has emerged as a particularly attractive alternative, especially for China’s defence and research sectors, because it off ers a geopolitically neutral, open-source architecture. According to the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, RISC- V’s openness makes it a strategic choice for building domestic chip capabilities. A 2023 report by T e Japan Times revealed that, in response to US sanctions, Chinese defence contractors, state-backed entities and academic institutions invested more than $50m in RISC-V projects between 2018 and 2023.
Today, RISC-V chips are already being used in applications ranging from self-driving cars to artifi cial intelligence, showing how rapidly the technology is transitioning from research to real-world deployment.
The patent problem RISC-V’s fl exibility is both its greatest strength and its main legal vulnerability. T e ISA promotes innovation where designers can customise various aspects of computer architecture, such as memory models, cache coherency, neuro technology, and hardware accelerators to fi t their specifi c needs. However, these areas are also where patent risks frequently arise. Many modern SoCs include features such as hybrid branch predictors, boot-time power gating, and custom interrupt schedulers, which are components that may already be covered by patents held by companies such as Intel, IBM, Qualcomm, or ARM. T e issue is: even if an engineer creates their bespoke implementation, they might still unintentionally infringe a patent. In patent law, originality does not shield you from legal action.
06 July/August 2025
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
Patent fi lings related to RISC-V have surged
in recent years. According to publications from T e Japan Times, in China, RISC-V patent publications increased from around 10 in 2018 to approximately 1,061 in 2022, while US fi lings grew from about 10 to around 2,018 during the same period. Similarly, Chinese fabless companies account for about 40% of global RISC-V patents, according to industry trackers. Worldwide, fi lings involving RISC-V have risen by more than 400% between 2018 and 2023, refl ecting growing innovation, as well as increased competition and legal risks. Companies such as SiFive, Andes Technology, and Alibaba’s THead are driving these trends, securing patents on microarchitecture innovations like vector units, custom accelerators, and cache management systems. Academic institutions are also entering the IP game, compounding the ecosystem’s legal complexity. In the GCC, particularly, United Arab
Emirates, RISC-V research and chip design are gaining momentum. T e Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi has played a central role by joining RISC-V
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