"Lack of sovereignty" is very much a 2025 problem for some countries and industries.The most famous quote I've seen is "RISC-V, the solution to a 1990s problem".
No end of repeating 'why RISC-V won't ever succeed' and 'ARM is better' tropes appears to be discouraging those who do see RISC-V as having a future and a lot of value.
It often sounds equivalent to "FOSS will never match or beat proprietary" to me, and usually comes from those with vested interest in ARM, hoping that RISC-V won't succeed, being dismissive of it at every opportunity.
It's not just about saving pennies or cents - though it's also often said that's exactly what it is about for high volume manufacturers, it's about being able to build the whole chip should supply chains falter or be cut off entirely, being able to improve on it or tailor it to one's use without having to pay an IP owner a huge fortune to do that, without having corporate lawyers banging on their doors.
Putting RISC-V on the RP2350 alongside ARM made me realise the CPU doesn't really matter. With just a configuration option one can compile and run code for either and most times users will be none the wiser as which was being used.
In some cases RISC-V may perform better, in other cases ARM, particularly as ARM has access to things which aren't exposed to RISC-V. But all-in they could be much-a-muchness.
I am sure ARM does have the advantage in the higher performance arena, at least for now. But most people don't need that, most would be as happy using RISC-V on an RP235X as they would be using ARM, most only need equivalency for what they need or want to do.
And as well as "sovereignty" there's the "freedom" argument as well, the same philosophies and ideologies which drives FOSS, OSH, permissive and copyleft licensing. For those who want to build on something rather than start from the ground up, RISC-V is a much better proposition. You can do whatever you want with a RISC-V design. We have tales of woe a-plenty which demonstrates that won't go anywhere near so well using ARM IP.
I don't for an instant expect RISC-V to drive ARM to extinction any time soon, but I don't believe RISC-V is as doomed as some would like to suggest, some would like others to believe.
Statistics: Posted by hippy — Thu Jul 24, 2025 11:26 am