At Libre Space Foundation, we are always thrilled when we join forces with organizations and initiatives promoting the open-source development methodologies.
For this, we could not be more excited to announce our membership to RISC-V International.
A few words about RISC-V
What RISC-V is
RISC-V is an open-standard, instruction set architecture (ISA).
For those not very familiar with the term, an instruction set is the set of basic instructions a processor understands. The instruction set is part of the processor’s architecture. ISAs fall under two categories: the Reduced (RISC) and the Complex (CISC).
The RISC-V instruction set is designed to facilitate a wide range of uses and, it comes under an open-source licensing scheme making it available for everyone to use.
How it started
For a CPU design to be created, many experts from different specialities are required to contribute, making the cost of such a creative high. Some commercial vendors of ISAs charge royalties. But RISC-V follows an entirely different approach.
The project was initially begun at the University of California, Berkley in 2010 and it was the result of the collaborative work and effort of many non-affiliate-with-the-University volunteers. They contributed their time, effort and know-how in creating an open-source instruction set that would be useable for practical computers.
The mindset
The aim was to come up with a non-proprietary, academically useable ISA whose usage would not require any fees and it would be versatile enough as to be integrated with any hardware or software. Instead of focusing on creating complex microarchitecture, the contributors of RISC-V focused on its usability and its successful design. The more functionality it acquired, the more popular it became. Over the years, the number of contributing entities which have been creating and releasing RISC-V hardware or operating systems supporting RISC-V has increased tremendously.
RISC-V supports small, fast and low-power implementations responding to the real needs of the users. This way, an array of designs has been built to fit as many uses as possible. By working with a good, open-source instruction set, you can focus less on software support and more on design; less on worrying about software, more on focusing on implementation. Its open intellectual property enables the modification, improvement, reusability and publication of updated, adjusted and robust designs.
Libre Space Foundation
At Libre Space Foundation, we believe that the future of humanity is Space but only experienced and explored following open-source approaches; in development, data distribution and governance too. These are principles which we apply to all our projects, both hardware and software. Though this might seem hard to implement, the truth is that it is not. Because if you take a closer look at all of our projects, you will see that they are guided by the same principles of openness and accessibility. All the tools and solutions we build are modular and reusable so as to serve as level-field, highly-reliable solutions. The hardware design, schematic design, Printed Circuit Board (PCB), firmware we create, everything is non-proprietary. Because what we aim for is creating tools which are:
- versatile enough to respond to the users’ needs
- powerful enough to fuel versatility
- reliable enough to function well in extreme conditions and
- reproducible to such an extent that gives the user the opportunity and the freedom to build what
they have in mind regardless of the types of tools they decide to use. Thus, they might as well use the tools we provide them, but they can just as easily opt for any other set of tools available. It does not matter, and their choice does not affect their creation because, from our part, the solutions provided are easily integrated. This way, functionality, modification and reusability are not obstructed nor affected in any way, as they do not rely on any proprietary solutions.
RISC-V International and Libre Space Foundation: where the two converge
For us at Libre Space Foundation, becoming a Member of RISC-V International is a great honor as we see eye-to-eye with it. This is a partnership towards making open-source even more powerful and enhancing the efforts to familiarize wider audiences with it.
Libre Space Foundation functions and operates within a niche industry, and this is particularly challenging at times. We do believe that the challenges arising can be dealt with effectively when open-sourced methodologies are applied. These should be implemented widely not only when it comes to creating Space Technologies but also on ISA too. End-to-end, open-source methods to enable modifications enhancing functionality, to bring in new users and expand the pool of active contributors.
What is more, we believe that the significant challenges that we face within the space industry can be managed successfully through the pursuit of strategic partnerships with space agencies, academic institutions and other organizations that believe in the power of openness and collaboration.
All these are part of how we see innovation, development and progress should unfold, and for this, we have joined forces with RISC-V International.
