Dr. Jesse Zhixi Fang Appointed as Chair of the RISC-V Foundation China Advisory Committee to Accelerate Adoption of the RISC-V ISA in China

China Advisory Committee will help guide the RISC-V Foundation’s education and adoption strategies

WUZHEN, China – Nov. 8, 2018 – Today at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, the RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit corporation controlled by its members to drive the adoption and implementation of the free and open RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), announced that semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Jesse Zhixi Fang has been appointed Chair of the RISC-V Foundation’s newly formed China Advisory Committee. Building on the RISC-V Foundation’s growing footprint in China across more than 25 organizations and universities, the China Advisory Committee will guide the RISC-V Foundation’s education and adoption strategies to further accelerate the RISC-V ecosystem in the region. Fang will work closely with local stakeholders and recruit key contributors within the RISC-V community in China to participate in the Committee.

“We have seen significant global adoption of RISC-V, including a growing presence in China where RISC-V has received significant support from industry and academia,” said Rick O’Connor, executive director of the non-profit RISC-V Foundation. “We are excited to work with Jesse, who has a proven track record of fostering innovation and growth, as Chair of the China Advisory Committee and continue the important mission of the RISC-V Foundation to enable a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration.”

Fang has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor field and is credited with nearly 40 global patents. Throughout his career he has held a variety of leadership roles, including his current role as CEO of Tangram Technologies Inc., which he founded, and as a vice president at Intel. While at Intel, Fang launched Intel Labs China and served as its managing director, where he was responsible for five Intel research facilities as well as a joint research center with Tsinghua University to develop breakthrough technologies. Fang earned a bachelor’s degree in math from Fudan University and earned a master’s and doctorate degree in computer science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“Over the past few years, China has significantly expanded its semiconductor industry in tandem with the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative. Many organizations are taking advantage of the free and open RISC-V ISA to reach new levels of innovation and bolster China’s semiconductor market amid global competition,” said Fang. “I look forward to working closely with local companies, individual contributors and other stakeholders to build on this incredible momentum and help bring together this open, collaborative community of software and hardware innovators powering a new level of processor innovation leveraging the RISC-V ecosystem.”

Said Krste Asanović, chairman of the Board of the RISC-V Foundation: “With the recent surge of interest in RISC-V in China, we’ve seen multiple RISC-V groups emerge, all with the goal of driving the RISC-V ISA ecosystem forward. The China Advisory Committee will provide guidance and direction for the RISC-V Foundation as RISC-V adoption continues to accelerate in China.”

Since its inception in 2015, the RISC-V Foundation has expanded its global reach to nearly 200 organizations, individuals, academics and universities from around the world. The RISC-V Foundation is calling on industry leaders to continue the momentum in China set by more than 25 organizations and universities, driving the adoption and implementation of the RISC-V ISA to pave the future of computing design and innovation.

To learn more about the RISC-V Foundation, please visit: http://riscv.org.

About RISC-V Foundation

RISC-V (pronounced “risk-five”) is a free and open ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. Founded in 2015, the RISC-V Foundation comprises more than 200 member organizations building the first open, collaborative community of software and hardware innovators powering a new era of processor innovation. Born in academia and research, RISC-V ISA delivers a new level of free, extensible software and hardware freedom on architecture, paving the way for the next 50 years of computing design and innovation.

The RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit corporation controlled by its members, directs the future development and drives the adoption of the RISC-V ISA. Members of the RISC-V Foundation have access to and participate in the development of the RISC-V ISA specifications and related HW / SW ecosystem.