A third world engineer responds to “RISC-V: They should have known better”
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
RISC-V's low cost and openness make it accessible to engineers in developing countries.
Armstrong Subero, an embedded engineer in Trinidad and Tobago, responds to Dmitry Grinberg's criticism of RISC-V. He argues Grinberg's architectural complaints miss the point: RISC-V's ten-cent chips with free shipping on AliExpress enable students in countries like Trinidad, Nigeria, and Bangladesh to learn embedded development. Subero cites the CH32V003 (RV32EC) for $0.10, the dual-core CH32H417 for $20, and the Baochip-1x security chip. He claims he explored the full RISC-V stack from disposable silicon to Linux-capable SBCs for under $100 total, including shipping. He contrasts this with ARM's product segmentation, licensing, and high debugger costs.
Subero argues that RISC-V's extension mechanism, which Grinberg calls fragmentation, actually allows one ISA to span ten-cent parts and MMU-equipped chips. The same register model and toolchain work across all tiers, making skills transferable. He states RISC-V will dominate cheap microcontrollers not due to ISA elegance but because of price and accessibility.
What commenters are saying
The dominant sentiment is appreciation for the non-Western perspective, with several commenters calling it a fresh take. Some dispute the shipping cost claims, arguing that shipping from Asia to Nigeria or Bangladesh is not as expensive as to Trinidad. Others note that both positions are valid: Grinberg's architectural critiques have merit, but RISC-V's practical advantages matter more in constrained settings. A subthread debates whether HN's user base has shifted from Bay Area to DACH/Centric regions, citing posting patterns and topic focus.
One commenter suggests that bureocratic barriers in countries like Turkey make importing cheap components prohibitively expensive due to tariffs, echoing the article's access theme.