Today, Google and Qualcomm announced an extension of their partnership to bring RISC-V-based systems-on-chips (SoCs) to market with support for Wear OS, a version of Android for smartwatches and wearables. This announcement marks a hardware first for Qualcomm to bring an SoC based primarily on the RISC-V microprocessor architecture to market and the third major software announcement for the RISC-V architecture in just under a year. The previous announcements included Google’s announcement for Android support for RISC-V in November 2022 and the formation of the RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) in May. Both Google and Qualcomm are founding members of RISE.
For its part, Google has committed to the Android and Wear OS ports and software development tools. While Qualcomm’s current SoCs are primarily based on the Arm microprocessor architecture, Qualcomm uses RISC-V based microcontroller cores within its popular Snapdragon SoCs that are used in automotive, smartphones, PCs, and a host of other IoT applications. Qualcomm is currently the market leader in Wear OS smartwatch SoCs with the Snapdragon Wear platform. The shift from Arm to RISC-V microprocessor cores marks a significant change for Qualcomm and a huge design win for the RISC-V architecture. Qualcomm has a significant investment in the open-source RISC-V architecture and recently announced a partnership with NXP, Nordic Semiconductor, Bosch, and Infineon to form a new and yet to be named company “aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V.” The new company will be focused on developing solutions for use in automotive, IoT, and mobile; three critical markets for Google and Qualcomm.
The announcement provided no details on the dates that the hardware or software solutions will be available, but this latest announcement marks another major step in the development of the RISC-V ecosystem. Developing an ecosystem around a new microprocessor architecture can take a decade or longer, particularly due to the need for the operating system (OS) support, the software development tools, and the development or porting of applications. However, behind technology heavyweights like Google, Intel, MediaTek, Nvidia, NXP, Qualcomm, Samsung and many others, the RISC-V architecture looks set to be a major alternative to other architectures, especially Arm, in the next few years. This may be ideal timing for Qualcomm as its lawsuit with Arm over the use of technology acquired through the Nuvia acquisition is scheduled to reach the court room in late 2024.
While the availability of the new Qualcomm SoCs or Google Wear OS support was not announced, Tirias Research estimates that devices using the new platform could be in the market by as early as 2025. And if Qualcomm and Google are jointly working to bring RISC-V solutions to market, other Qualcomm platforms and platforms from other semiconductor vendors are likely to shortly follow.
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