RISC-V is a modern open hardware platform that is not only part of many new devices, but also powering up new areas of research that will lead to optimised hardware solutions for offloading tasks to dedicated modules on systems-on-chip (SOCs). The European Union, the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US, and NLnet foundation recognise this promise and fund the design and development of new solutions, including for high-performance computing (HPC).

GNU Guix, because of its hackability, flexibility, determinismistic output, and potential for ‘generics’, makes an ideal partner for RISC-V development and deployment. In principal the full software stack with all dependencies can be ‘carved in stone’ and provide a reproducible design of RISC-V hardware all the way from idea to taping out a chip, via the stages of simulation, emulation and testing.

In this presentation I'll talk about this future of open hardware architecture that allows for ‘burning software’ into hardware and how GNU Guix can play a central role in a new industry.