APPLE EXPLORING RISC-V CORES

Job Opportunities Open Up for RISC-V Programmers

APPLE IS LOOKING for programmers with knowledge of the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) and ARM’s Neon vector ISA for its Vector and Numerics Group (VaNG), which is responsible for developing embedded subsystems on iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

Apple’s listing doesn’t disclose exactly what it plans to do with RISC-V, but the job description indicates that the programmer will have to work with machine learning, computational vision, and natural language processing. Furthermore, the job description also indicates that Apple is already working with RISC-V.

“You will work in an SW and HW crossfunctional team which is implementing innovative RISC-V solutions and state-ofthe-art routines," the ad reads. “This is to support the necessary computation for such things as machine learning, vision algorithms, signal, and video processing. Push the state of the art in low-level computation and drive them towards energy-efficient and high-performance implementations by tightly integrating software and hardware.”

In addition to the SoCs, every Apple device has numerous ARM cores that require Apple to pay a licensing fee to ARM. With the number of cores for things like SSD controllers and smartwatches increasing, so will Apple’s payments to ARM. Replacing some ARM cores with RISC-V cores could save Apple millions of dollars in royalty payments every year.

With Apple already working on RISC-V solutions, it is only a matter of time before the company replaces some cores. RISC-V currently focuses on lower-performance applications, but the ISA is developing fast, and the first high-performance RISC-V designs will emerge soon.