Russian microelectronics developers have appealed to the government with an initiative to strengthen support for the open RISC-V processor architecture.
The alliance, which includes key industry players, proposed including technologies based on it in the list of priority areas of national projects. Among the measures of state support are subsidizing R&D, compensating for patenting costs, stimulating production, and applying the "second one out" mechanism in public procurement. The latter involves automatic rejection of foreign suppliers if there is at least one domestic analogue.
The RISC-V architecture, created at the University of California, features open source code and free access for commercial use. This avoids dependence on proprietary solutions such as x86 (Intel) or ARM, access to which is limited by sanctions. However, the right to implement specifications belongs to an international consortium based in the United States, which retains the risk of sudden license revocation — a similar scenario has already been implemented with British ARM in 2022.
Not all market participants support a narrowly focused approach. Developers of Elbrus processors insist that benefits should extend to all domestic architectures, provided that development is fully localized. Experts also point to the need to balance open standards and technological sovereignty.
Interest in RISC-V is growing globally. China, which views the architecture as "geopolitically neutral," plans to mass-produce chips based on it. This raises questions about possible schemes for re-exporting Chinese products under Russian brands.
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