Geopolitical factors could potentially impact the compatibility of permissive licenses.
According to reports, the United States Department of Commerce is giving serious consideration to the requests of lawmakers who want to impose stricter regulations on China’s utilization of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA).
The RISC-V ISA is available for developers to freely access and utilize for creating proprietary or open source implementations, allowing for a wide range of commercial or other applications.
The license allows chip designers from all over the world, including those in China, to freely work with RISC-V.
In late 2023, members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) voiced their apprehension about the potential undermining of Uncle Sam’s efforts to restrict the flow of advanced chips to China by RISC-V.
“The representatives emphasized the importance of open source collaboration on RISC-V, highlighting the potential benefits it offers. However, they stressed the need for contributors to focus solely on enhancing the technology, rather than serving the geopolitical interests of a specific country. In their letter from November 2023, they called for the establishment of a strong ecosystem for open source collaboration among the US and its allies, with measures in place to prevent any undue advantage for a particular nation.”
That implies that if Beijing can develop its own RISC-V chips, banning chip sales to China would be ineffective. The Committee members thus urged US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo to explore potential actions regarding RISC-V.
RISC-V International CEO Calista Redmond passionately supports open source collaboration, highlighting its role in driving technological advancements and the creation of highly valuable innovations such as USB and Ethernet. She emphasized that her organization serves as a facilitator of a standard rather than a proprietary entity.
However, as per a report from Reuters on Tuesday, the Commerce Department is currently investigating RISC-V.
A letter from the Department has been reported by the newswire, stating that they are currently reviewing potential risks and evaluating whether there are suitable actions under Commerce authorities to effectively address any concerns that may arise.
The course of action to be taken remains uncertain. Their potential effectiveness is a subject of debate, as US tech bans have not been successful in preventing China from importing banned GPUs. Additionally, various actors have devised numerous ways to circumvent the restrictions and bring prohibited technology into the Middle Kingdom.
The Register has also reported on cases where smugglers transported GPUs and live lobsters together across the border from Hong Kong to China. We also inquired with the open source community about their willingness to adjust their practices to comply with international sanctions – their response was not enthusiastic.
Regardless of the Commerce Department’s decision, China is already making significant progress with RISC-V. Loongson, a local chip design firm, has leveraged the ISA to develop various products. These include desktop PC chips that are currently being introduced to Chinese schools, as well as a high-performance processor intended for production by Alibaba Cloud in 2024.
China has clearly expressed its desire for more of this type of technology by exclusively approving processors that can be controlled to a certain extent. This is because these processors offer the flexibility for customization. Additionally, China has implemented its own restrictions on the import of US tech.