RISC-V Architecture Overview
General
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· Updated 2026-08-07
RISC-V Architecture Overview
What is RISC-V?
RISC-V is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. Unlike proprietary ISAs (ARM, x86), RISC-V is:
- Open and free — No licensing fees, no vendor lock-in
- Modular — Add only the extensions you need
- Community-driven — Governed by RISC-V International (Switzerland)
- Sanctions-resistant — Not subject to any single country's export controls
Why RISC-V Matters
| Feature | ARM | x86 | RISC-V |
|---|
| License | $$$ royalty | $$$ royalty | Free |
| Custom ISA | No | No | Yes |
| Audit | Closed | Closed | Open |
| Export control risk | High | High | Low |
| Sovereignty | No | No | Yes |
RISC-V Base ISAs
| ISA | Width | Use Case |
|---|
| RV32E | 32-bit | Embedded, ultra-low-cost (CH32V003) |
| RV32I | 32-bit | General embedded |
| RV64I | 64-bit | Application processors (K1, K3) |
| RV128I | 128-bit | Future |
Key Extensions
- M — Integer multiplication/division
- A — Atomic operations
- C — Compressed instructions (16-bit encoding)
- F/D — Single/double precision floating point
- V — Vector operations (SIMD)
- H — Hypervisor (virtualization)
Our RISC-V Product Portfolio
We offer a complete 7-tier product path from $0.1 MCU to 60 TOPS AI SoC:
- CH32V003 — $0.10, RV32EC, 48MHz
- CH32V208 — $1.00, RV32IMAC, 144MHz, BLE
- CH32V307 — $3.00, RV32IMACF, 144MHz, Gigabit Ethernet
- CH32V317 — $4.00, RV32IMACF, 144MHz, USB 480Mbps
- CH32H417 — $6.00, Dual-core, USB 3.0 5Gbps
- K1-8G — $99+, 8x X60 @1.6GHz, OpenWrt
- K3 — $299+, 8x X100 + 8x A100, 60 TOPS AI
Further Reading