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Comment by charcircuit | Hacker News Reader

What's special about RISC-V? How does companies not having to pay for using an ISA in a processor having anything to do with whether they implement other processors inside of their processor?

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It's not that RISC-V guarantees truly transparent firmware and microcode; as you correctly point out, it does not.

What RISC-V offers is the possibility of truly transparent firmware and microcode. This comes as a refreshing alternative to x86, which guarantees that firmware and microcode, including those of security coprocessors (e.g. Intel CSME & AMD ST, formerly ME and PSP) will not be transparent.

ARM offers the same possibility but there's like one SoC that's fully transparent.

I am not as well-versed in the specifics of ARM's TrustZone as I am with Intel CSME and AMD ST, but I understand many of the people uncomfortable with the latter two are uncomfortable with the former as well. I do not believe it comes with the same capabilities as CSME or ST (PSP), but I do know that earlier versions of PSP were implemented using an ARM TrustZone core. That said, I need to do a lot more reading and research on it before forming more substantial positions on it.

AFAIK you can build an ARM SoC without TrustZone (or without using TrustZone for anything) if you want.

ARM offers the same possibility.. in exchange for a fee and a stack of NDAs. Competition and openness is how we should deal with this disease.

Being compatible with the standard ISA is itself a benefit.

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