PROS:
1. More customization: Qualcomm’s RISC-V chip will allow developers to create more tailored solutions for UI and UX on Wear OS devices.
2. Lower costs: The open-source nature of RISC-V will reduce royalty costs that come with using proprietary designs.
3. Encouraging Innovation: With a more flexible and accessible architecture, new innovations could be on the horizon.
4. Better Performance: Potential for improved processing efficiency and power usage are enticing.
5. Increasing Competition: May spur competition, leading to more advances in the industry.
6. Less Dependence on ARM: Less reliance on ARM architecture reduces potential exposure to monopoly control.
7. Longevity: As an open standard, RISC-V has the potential to outlive proprietary technologies and manufacturer discontinuations.
CONS:
1. Stability Concerns: Transition to a new technology could lead to initial stability and compatibility issues.
2. Limited Development Ecosystem: The current ecosystem for RISC-V is much smaller compared to established architectures like ARM, creating hurdles for development and adoption.
3. Complexity: RISC-V could introduce more complexity to the development process.
4. Time and Resources: Transitioning to a new technology will require a substantial investment of time and resources.
5. Security Concerns: Open-source projects could have more potential security vulnerabilities.
6. Uncertain Market Acceptance: Market acceptance of new technology is hard to predict and risky to assume.
7. Lack of Track Record: RISC-V lacks a substantial track record in powering wearables, increasing the risk.
Qualcomm and Google collaborate to create a RISC-V platform for Wear OS devices. RISC-V is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) that defines how the CPU is controlled, according to Arm.
