Industry Leaders Launch RISE to Accelerate the Development of Open Source Software for RISC-V

Enabling commercial-ready software for application processors using RISC-V architecture for segments including mobile, consumer electronics, datacenter, and automotive.

Brussels, Belgium – May 31, 2023 – The RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) Project is a new collaborative effort that brings together global industry leaders committed to accelerating the availability of software for high-performance and power-efficient RISC-V cores running high level operating systems for a variety of market segments. The RISE Governing Board includes Andes, Google, Intel, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, Qualcomm Technologies, Red Hat, Rivos, Samsung, SiFive, T-Head, and Ventana. RISE is hosted by Linux Foundation Europe and the effort supports the global open standard activities and achievements of RISC-V International.

“It’s an exciting time to be part of the RISC-V community, with continued popularity of the platform as well as strong progress across a variety of new use cases. However, this momentum must be supported by performant, secure, reliable and commercial-ready software,” said Amber Huffman, Chair of the RISE Project. “The RISE Project brings together leaders with a shared sense of urgency to accelerate the RISC-V software ecosystem readiness in collaboration with RISC-V International.”
 
“As a global community, we have made tremendous progress in RISC-V adoption. We are grateful to the thousands of engineers making upstream contributions and to the organizations coming together now to invest in tools and libraries in support of the RISC-V software ecosystem,” said RISC-V International CEO Calista Redmond. “Accelerating adoption is our shared mission. The collective investment of our community and in the RISE Project will build on that momentum.”

RISE Project members will contribute financially and provide engineering talent to address specific software deliverables prioritized by the RISE Technical Steering Committee (TSC). RISE is dedicated to enabling a robust software ecosystem specifically for application processors that includes software development tools, virtualization support, language runtimes, Linux distribution integration, and system firmware, working upstream first with existing open source communities in accordance with open source best practices.

“The RISE Project is dedicated to enabling RISC-V in open source tools and libraries (e.g., LLVM, GCC, etc) to speed implementation and time-to-market,” said Gabriele Columbro, General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe. “RISC-V is a cornerstone of the European technology and industrial landscape so we're honored to provide a neutral, trusted home for the RISE Project under Linux Foundation Europe.”

RISE is a global collaborative effort and welcomes new General Members. Please visit www.riseproject.dev for information on how to join.


QUOTES FROM THE GOVERNING BOARD

Andes Technology
“Andes is excited to join the RISE board of directors to help accelerate and strengthen RISC-V software solutions so that our customers are fully equipped to create innovative products based on RISC-V from Edge to Cloud." - Dr. Charlie Su, President and CTO, Andes Technology. 

Google
"Open Source software is at the heart of modern products. Google is excited to partner with industry leaders to drive rapid maturity of the RISC-V software ecosystem in support of Android and more.” - Lars Bergstrom, Director of Engineering on Android at Google.

Intel
“Accelerating RISC-V support in the open source software ecosystem, aligned with platform standards, is critical to the growth of RISC-V adoption. Intel is pleased to join other industry leaders in the formation of RISE to further this goal.” - Mark Skarpness, Vice President and General Manager of System Software Engineering at Intel. 

Imagination Technologies
“As RISC-V adoption continues to grow across a wide range of markets and applications, investment in the software ecosystem across the industry is accelerating. The RISE Project will coordinate this investment to avoid duplication and increase the pace of development. Imagination already has an extensive program of RISC-V software ecosystem development, including a large investment in open-source software. RISE will enable us to maximize the effectiveness of this, and further accelerate the fastest growing ecosystem in the industry.” - Pete Lewin, Director of CPU Ecosystems, Imagination Technologies. 

MediaTek 
“Being part of the RISE Board of Directors highlights our commitment to promoting the growth of RISC-V. This achievement enables us to coordinate and collaborate closely with member partners to deliver high quality and performance implementations for this open ecosystem.” - Lawrence Loh, Senior Corporate Vice President, MediaTek.

NVIDIA
“NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform -- which includes GPUs, DPUs, chiplets, interconnects and software -- will support the RISC-V open standard to help drive breakthroughs in data centers, and a wide range of industries, such as automotive, healthcare and robotics. In joining RISE, we look forward to collaborating with other industry leaders across a variety of disciplines to grow the RISC-V ecosystem.” - Kevin Kranzusch, Vice President of System Software at NVIDIA.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“With a proven track record of technology innovation and leading software expertise, Qualcomm Technologies is committed to helping expand the RISC-V software ecosystem. RISC-V’s flexible, scalable, and open architecture enables benefits across the entire value chain – from silicon vendors to OEM manufacturers to end consumers." Larry Wikelius, Senior Director of Technical Standards, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Red Hat
"Red Hat is excited to be part of RISE and to work with such a diverse and open group of collaborators to enable the RISC-V software ecosystem. Getting software right for RISC-V - and doing so using open source best practices - is well aligned with Red Hat's corporate interests. We feel that RISE will enable RISC-V to extend into new markets and use cases." - Steve Watt, Head of Red Hat’s Office of the CTO. 

Rivos  
"Open source software is a core enabler for the success of RISC-V commercialization efforts. Rivos is excited to join the RISE Project along with industry leaders to accelerate the development of the RISC-V software ecosystem." - Puneet Kumar, CEO of Rivos

Samsung
“We believe in the core mission of the RISE Project, in which we can apply the proven successful model of open source innovation. Samsung Electronics would like to contribute and collaborate with members of the RISE Project to enable a new disruptive world powered by a sustainable RISC-V software ecosystem.” - Soohong Daniel Park, Head of Open Source Group at Samsung Electronics, and Board Representative at the Linux Foundation.

SiFive
"As SiFive brings leading-edge high performance apps processors to market, and global momentum accelerates for RISC-V solutions, having the support of a broad and robust software ecosystem is critical. RISE brings together many of the world's leading tech innovators and will contribute to an already fast growing pace of adoption, especially in mobile, consumer electronics and automotive where we are seeing tremendous customer interest in RISC-V solutions.” - John Ronco, Vice President of Segment Marketing, SiFive.

T-Head
“T-Head has been contributing to the software ecosystem through initiatives such as putting various operating systems onto RISC-V and contributing an integrated development environment to the RISC-V community. Together with other global business leaders for the RISE Project and our partners across sectors, we can further drive the growth of the open-source software ecosystem." - Jianyi Meng, Vice President of T-Head.

Ventana
“The RISC-V open source software ecosystem has shown tremendous growth and maturity over the past several years, thanks to the efforts of the vast user and developer base. We at Ventana have taken a leading role in fostering this dynamic RISC-V software ecosystem. We are excited to be a founding member of RISE, joining a consortium of industry leaders to accelerate commercialization and rapid adoption of RISC-V across key market segments." - Kumar Sankaran, Vice President, Software and Platforms at Ventana. 

About Linux Foundation Europe
The Linux Foundation and Linux Foundation Europe together are supported by more than 3000 members internationally. This expansion highlights the Linux Foundation’s commitment towards growing a truly global, diverse and inclusive institution to continue transparently advancing Open Source growth and to facilitate regional—global collaboration. The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, Hyperledger Foundation, PyTorch, RISC-V, and more. Linux Foundation Europe methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.eu.