On July 26, the RDI Ecosystem • Wuhan Innovation Forum 2024 was held in Wuhan of China's Hebei province. Themed “Open Cooperation and Collaborative Innovation for Shared Success,” the forum brought together numerous industry experts, entrepreneurs, and partners throughout the RISC-V ecosystem to explore new opportunities for the development of RISC-V digital infrastructure. The goal was to promote wider application of RISC-V across various industries and build a forward-looking RISC-V innovation ecosystem. Wang Dongsheng, Chairman of ESWIN Computing, addressed the forum. Dr. He Ning, Senior Vice President and CTO of ESWIN Computing delivered a keynote speech.

RDI Ecosystem • Wuhan Innovation Forum 2024

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway, we now stand on the brink of the AI era. The advent of this era, particularly the rise of artificial general intelligence (AGI), demands more powerful, faster, and vast computational capabilities. The explosive growth and demand for computing power will result in tremendous consumption of electricity and water resources.

For example, a single training session for the GPT-3 model, which has 175 billion parameters, consumes approximately 1,287 megawatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to 550 tons of CO₂ emissions. This can almost be referred to as an “energy monster.” GPT-4 is said to have 1.76 trillion parameters, so electricity consumption and CO₂ emissions are beyond imagination. Moreover, the operation of computing power centers generates significant heat, which requires the use of pure water for cooling purposes, thereby consuming substantial amounts of water resources. With the advancement and application of AI technology, industrial verticals such as smart manufacturing, smart retail, smart mobility, self-driving, and smart healthcare demand higher energy efficiency, safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of computing power. Should the picture remain unchanged, the path of development would be unsustainable.

Wang Dongsheng, Chairman of ESWIN Computing, delivers a speech

Wang Dongsheng said, “Our times calls for digital infrastructure architecture and systems that are not only safe, reliable, and cost-effective, but also energy-efficient, that is, green computing,” said Wang Dongsheng, Chairman of ESWIN Computing. “The RISC-V architecture, with its simplicity, openness, flexibility, low power consumption, modularity, and scalability, has emerged in the AI era as the preferred choice for the underlying computing power of the new generation of digital infrastructure,” he added.

Wang proposed the concept of RISC-V Digital Infrastructure (RDI) at the event. RDI encompasses all digital infrastructure products that adopt the RISC-V architecture, including the foundational chips, hardware devices, software systems, and scenario specific solutions, which together constitute the next-generation digital infrastructure. As he pointed out, the key to the success of RDI lies in ecosystem building and innovation. He called for partners across the upstream and downstream ecosystem to collaborate and jointly advance RDI ecosystem building and innovation to drive industry development. From the base to applications, from individuals to the ecosystem, and from closed to open, we aim to achieve all-around development of the RDI industry. Through solid technological accumulation and an innovative model of open cooperation, we can contribute to the innovation and development of a new generation of green, safe, reliable, and sustainable RDI industry. This will make it an important part of the country's new quality productive forces and a new driver of economic and social development.

Dr. He Ning delivered his keynote speech titled “Together for a New Ecosystem of RISC-V Digital Infrastructure (RDI),” and elaborated on the challenges, cultivation strategies, and pathways for the promotion of the RDI ecosystem.

Dr. He Ning, Senior Vice President and CTO of ESWIN Computing, delivers a keynote speech

He stated, “The core strategy of RDI is to combine the needs of local regions and vertical industries and make use of platforms such as the RISC-V ecosystem innovation center. By aggregating the products and capabilities of industry chain partners, we aim to build systematic solutions with RISC-V as the core underlying architecture. Such solutions will be implemented in application scenarios such as government affairs, education, transportation, and healthcare. We will curate benchmark applications for RDI ecosystem innovation and promote the building and prosperity of the new-generation RDI ecosystem.”

Dr. He Ning pointed out that it takes a long time for an ecosystem to grow mature, and the industry needs to build consensus, clarify the direction, strengthen top-level planning, and work together to create an enabling RDI ecosystem.

ESWIN Computing is the first to propose the RDI concept and also a practitioner. Since its establishment in 2019, the company has kept an open mind and conducted win-win cooperation with industry chain partners. On one hand, ESWIN Computing has been committed to investing in RISC-V, continuously strengthened its technical strength, and enriched its product matrix, thus forming a closed loop of capabilities from IP, core particles, chips to boards, and systems. On the other hand, it has worked with ecosystem partners to promote the implementation of RISC-V in more application scenarios.

At this forum, the guests witnessed the unveiling of the Wuhan RISC-V Ecosystem Innovation Center co-founded by ESWIN Computing and its industry partners. Through such means as standard setting, testing and verification, engineering demonstration, and application promotion, the Wuhan RISC-V Ecosystem Innovation Center will work to enhance the capabilities of RISC-V technology, products, and systems, advance the building the RISC-V digital infrastructure ecosystem, and boost innovation and industry development. Active efforts are being made to establish RISC-V ecosystem innovation centers in some other key cities.

Unveiling ceremony of Wuhan RISC-V Ecosystem Innovation Center

ESWIN Computing also exhibited a variety of innovative RISC-V products and solutions. The biggest highlights were the EIC77 series of edge computing SoCs using a 64-bit out-of-order RISC-V processor and the company’s self-developed power-efficient NPU, the development boards, and AI video processing solution based on this development board. Other exhibits included the RISC-V tightly coupled camera monitor system (CMS) and various chip products adopting the RISC-V architecture.

Innovative RISC-V products and solutions displayed in ESWIN Computing booth

In the AI era, innovation and industrial development of the RDI ecosystem is an inevitable trend and also a shared opportunity for industry partners. ESWIN Computing will leverage its expertise in the RISC-V domain and collaborate closely with partners across the RISC-V industry chain to achieve common development and growth.