Scaleway Introduces RISC-V Paris Meetup to go with its Servers
Scaleway leads the way, as it were, with energy-efficient emerging chips
Dispatch 02 - October 3rd, 2025.
Scaleway, one of the French-equivalents of Amazon Web Services (AWS), launched the first RISC-V gathering in their Paris headquarters last night. The initiative comes after their announcement for RISC-V server support.
RISC-V (pronounced “risk five”), is an open-source computer architecture — basically, the blueprint for how processors understand and execute instructions.
I watched as speakers took the stage, and later mingled in the typical startup-like pizza and refreshments area. The overall takeaway is that we are where Linux was 30 years ago, as a nascent, cost-effective and open alternative.
Yet for the most part, we are waiting for the first iteration of a processor that can "take RISC-V mainstream". That means a chip powerful enough to handle substantial workloads while benefiting from a mature ecosystem of supporting solutions, making it viable in production environments.
The factor that could bring about that transformation could very well be RVA23, a profile of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) defined for 64-bit application processors that run “rich OS stacks” (i.e. general-purpose operating systems, not just embedded microcontrollers).
But as my picture above shows, there is no hardware currently available that uses such profile. So most of what people can do today with RISK-V is experimental, which is exciting because you are early, but annoying because there's not enough value in it.
It remains to be seen if there will be a catalyst for this in the near future; some people in the audience were saying another 10-15 years, but there is always the chance of a turning a new corner all of a sudden.
What is clear is that for all the talk about data sovereignty, the open source aspect, and the lower barrier of entry- RISK-V should be creating all sorts of EU-driven labs and manufacturing hubs, but today most of the chips are made in China.
Hopefully Scaleway can help spark a new dawn of hardware-oriented people, until then, we'll have to keep ARM-ing ourselves with what we've got.
-Foots Witherton, editor-in-cheese.
Dispatch 02 - October 3rd, 2025.
Scaleway, one of the French-equivalents of Amazon Web Services (AWS), launched the first RISC-V gathering in their Paris headquarters last night. The initiative comes after their announcement for RISC-V server support.
RISC-V (pronounced “risk five”), is an open-source computer architecture — basically, the blueprint for how processors understand and execute instructions.
I watched as speakers took the stage, and later mingled in the typical startup-like pizza and refreshments area. The overall takeaway is that we are where Linux was 30 years ago, as a nascent, cost-effective and open alternative.
Yet for the most part, we are waiting for the first iteration of a processor that can "take RISC-V mainstream". That means a chip powerful enough to handle substantial workloads while benefiting from a mature ecosystem of supporting solutions, making it viable in production environments.
The factor that could bring about that transformation could very well be RVA23, a profile of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) defined for 64-bit application processors that run “rich OS stacks” (i.e. general-purpose operating systems, not just embedded microcontrollers).
But as my picture above shows, there is no hardware currently available that uses such profile. So most of what people can do today with RISK-V is experimental, which is exciting because you are early, but annoying because there's not enough value in it.
It remains to be seen if there will be a catalyst for this in the near future; some people in the audience were saying another 10-15 years, but there is always the chance of a turning a new corner all of a sudden.
What is clear is that for all the talk about data sovereignty, the open source aspect, and the lower barrier of entry- RISK-V should be creating all sorts of EU-driven labs and manufacturing hubs, but today most of the chips are made in China.
Hopefully Scaleway can help spark a new dawn of hardware-oriented people, until then, we'll have to keep ARM-ing ourselves with what we've got.
-Foots Witherton, editor-in-cheese.
Dispatch 02 - October 3rd, 2025.
Scaleway, one of the French-equivalents of Amazon Web Services (AWS), launched the first RISC-V gathering in their Paris headquarters last night. The initiative comes after their announcement for RISC-V server support.
RISC-V (pronounced “risk five”), is an open-source computer architecture — basically, the blueprint for how processors understand and execute instructions.
I watched as speakers took the stage, and later mingled in the typical startup-like pizza and refreshments area. The overall takeaway is that we are where Linux was 30 years ago, as a nascent, cost-effective and open alternative.
Yet for the most part, we are waiting for the first iteration of a processor that can "take RISC-V mainstream". That means a chip powerful enough to handle substantial workloads while benefiting from a mature ecosystem of supporting solutions, making it viable in production environments.
The factor that could bring about that transformation could very well be RVA23, a profile of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) defined for 64-bit application processors that run “rich OS stacks” (i.e. general-purpose operating systems, not just embedded microcontrollers).
But as my picture above shows, there is no hardware currently available that uses such profile. So most of what people can do today with RISK-V is experimental, which is exciting because you are early, but annoying because there's not enough value in it.
It remains to be seen if there will be a catalyst for this in the near future; some people in the audience were saying another 10-15 years, but there is always the chance of a turning a new corner all of a sudden.
What is clear is that for all the talk about data sovereignty, the open source aspect, and the lower barrier of entry- RISK-V should be creating all sorts of EU-driven labs and manufacturing hubs, but today most of the chips are made in China.
Hopefully Scaleway can help spark a new dawn of hardware-oriented people, until then, we'll have to keep ARM-ing ourselves with what we've got.
-Foots Witherton, editor-in-cheese.
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