Open Source Hardware Benefits Procurement Practices

Hailey Lynne McKeefry, EBN
February 14, 2019

Electronics engineers and designers will enjoy a variety of benefits of the advent of processor options based the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). The supply chain and procurement department, though, has the potential of capturing a variety of sourcing benefits related to the nature of open source offerings as well.

“Open source does two things for you: it rationalizes price and motivates adoption and investment,” explained Keith Witek, senior vice president, Corporate Development, Strategy, and General Counsel at SiFive, a provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP. “If I charge you too much, you can leave and go to different vendor. I can’t lock you up with proprietary architecture or tools. And you feel like you can invest, because no one can take it away from you. RISC-V takes a big part in democratizing silicon.”

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