RISC-V Joint Venture Quintauris Grows to Six, as STMicroelectronics Joins the Party

Quintauris, a joint venture between Bosch, Infineon, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies to boost adoption of the free and open source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), has found a sixth member in STMicroelectronics — but is keeping the name.

"ST is a welcome addition to our list of shareholders," says Quintauris chief executive officer Alexander Kocher of the company's joining as the organization's sixth member. "By fostering collaboration between the world’s largest semiconductor companies, we aim to explore and unlock the potential of RISC-V for all the industries we will serve."

Quintauris was announced back in August last year, though it wasn't named until January, as a joint venture between Bosch, Infineon, Nordic, NXP, and Qualcomm, which would see the five work together to encourage adoption of the free and open source RISC-V ISA — which could be taken as a sign that the five were looking to transition away from Arm and its proprietary processor cores, though Nordic Semi has denied any such plan.

Now, STMicro is joining in as a sixth member — and will be working with its fellow members to push for the adoption of RISC-V in the automotive sector, with a roadmap that sees the efforts expanding to mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the future.

"We absolutely believe in the power of collaboration," says Kocher, "and look forward to engaging with the RISC-V ecosystem to speed development and enhance resilience."

More information is available on the Quintauris website — which will retain its five-themed name, even as it grows to six members.