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Re:Western Digital Plans to Ship More Than One Billion RISC-... by _chris_ on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @07:53PM (#15803525)
WD made it clear in there talk that this wasn't about saving on costs, but rather having control over the innovation in the data space.

I don't see any reason to doubt them. It's an incredible risk to switch their entire company over to a still-growing ISA. But being able to design and modify any particular core as they see fit without having to talk to lawyers or negotiate a new contract... that's an incredible power.

Re:Western Digital Plans to Ship More Than One Billion RISC-... by sliverstorm on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @08:10PM (#15803596)
RISC-V is certainly more unencumbered, but there's always the ARM architecture license too. Pricey, but you can modify and build on a relatively more mature ISA
Re:Western Digital Plans to Ship More Than One Billion RISC-... by asb on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @08:41PM (#15803734)
An architectural license doesn't give you free reign to extend the ISA, just to create your own implementation of the standard ISA.