Sustaining Standards Leadership: The United States Cannot Disengage from RISC-V - CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) asserts that the U.S. must remain deeply engaged in the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) standards development. Disengagement risks relinquishing global technological leadership to geopolitical competitors, thereby endangering national security and commercial interests. Active U.S. participation is critical for shaping the future of computing standards and maintaining technological advantage.

Report

Sustaining Standards Leadership: The United States Cannot Disengage from RISC-V

Key Highlights

• Policy Mandate: The primary argument is that the U.S. cannot afford to disengage from the RISC-V ecosystem; continued engagement is a necessity for national policy and technological leadership.
• Standards Battleground: RISC-V is identified as a crucial area where future global technology standards are being defined, making participation paramount for maintaining influence.
• Geopolitical Competition: Disengagement would create a vacuum, allowing geopolitical competitors (implying countries like China) to increase their influence and potentially steer the standards in directions unfavorable to U.S. interests.
• Standards Leadership: Sustaining U.S. leadership in international standards bodies is viewed as essential for both commercial prosperity and national security.

Technical Details

• Instruction Set Architecture (ISA): The core technology discussed is RISC-V, an open-source, royalty-free ISA.
• Open Governance Model: The nature of RISC-V's governance means that standards are set through collaborative technical working groups, emphasizing that influence requires active input into this process.
• Standardization Focus: The analysis centers not on specific technical implementations (like processor core design or specialized extensions) but on the strategic control and definition of the foundational architectural standards.

Implications

• Loss of Influence: Disengagement implies a loss of control over the technical specifications that will define the next generation of semiconductors, impacting everything from IoT to high-performance computing.
• National Security Risk: Allowing adversaries to set standards potentially permits the introduction of technical flaws, backdoors, or proprietary requirements that compromise global supply chain integrity and national defense systems.
• Commercial Impact: US hardware companies require a level playing field and standardized environment; stepping away from the standards process risks having domestic industry forced to adopt externally dictated specifications.
• Future Innovation: Maintaining a leadership role ensures that the RISC-V architecture evolves with extensions and profiles that align with Western security and commercial requirements, preserving the integrity and global interoperability of the ISA.