The RISC-V instruction set, developed by Andrew Waterman, Christo Sonovich and Yunsup Lee, features a subset of simple instructions that all software can run on. Additional, optional features can accelerate performance in the case of larger software
The RISC-V instruction set is gaining popularity in the IoT (Internet of Things) and cloud industries due to its lack of licenses and potential for customization. However, ARM currently dominates the mobile device space and it may be more difficult to transition away from their instruction set.
By using a reduced instruction set, hardware designs can become more energy efficient and cost-effective. However, the licensing cost for designing your own instruction set can be expensive, with some companies paying tens of millions of dollars.
RISC-V has a subset of around 40 instructions that allows all software to run as well as providing optional features for those that need it, making it easy to implement potential new technologies, such as biological computing, into the future.