It seems that almost every week, there is an announcement for groundbreaking new System on a Chip (SoC) design based on Arm or RISC-V – Like the impressive new SpacemiT X100, the exciting new Arm Cortex-A320 based on Arm v9 or the interesting new Alibaba C930! There is amazing hardware innovation taking place right now and the landscape of SoCs is rapidly evolving and improving at increasing velocity and cadence.
New, faster, and more functional hardware is impressive and exciting, but it’s easy to overlook the critical role software plays in maximizing hardware performance, leveraging the incredible functional advances and ensuring product success. High-quality software is essential to enabling the impressive features of the underlying hardware. A powerful SoC without optimized, secure, and sustainable software is like a high-performance car with tiny brakes and tires – it may have great potential, but it will never reach it.
Sure, developers can get their software up and running on most Arm and RISC-V SoCs nowadays but to get the most out of the excellent underlying hardware and take advantage of RISC strengths such as high performance, managed power consumption and security – expert software expertise is required for the resulting implementation to shine its brightest and perform its best in real world usage.
- High-performance software tuning is essential to make full use of the capabilities of the hardware. Poorly optimized drivers or middleware will undoubtedly lead to bottlenecks that degrade user experience and system efficiency.
- Another major advantage of RISC platforms such as Arm and RISC-V is the efficient use of energy, also referred to as power management. For most cases nowadays this is not limited to only mobile and embedded use cases. Power utilization is a priority concern and requirement for most implementations and use cases. The good news is that Arm and RISC-V architectures are loaded with power management capabilities but require software expertise to take full advantage and get it right. Fine tuning software to manage clock speeds, idle states, and energy consumption is just as important as designing power-efficient silicon. Software engineers with in-depth power management understanding and expertise have a significant impact in this area.
- With cyber threats now becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated with the adoption of AI as reports in the World Economic Forum 2025 Global Security Outlook, robust security at the software level, such as secure boot, trusted execution environments (TEE), and access to timely vulnerability patches is non-negotiable to help protect customers and end-users. Here again, we see hardware providing means to significantly harden security, but these functions require software expertise to leverage what the hardware offers. These functional aspects are vital to protect against threats when in production use. Poorly implemented security risks customer exposure to hacks and impacts product longevity.
- Let’s not forget long-term software stability and maintainability. Software that is upstreamed to Linux and Zephyr ensures much higher levels of ongoing compatibility and as a result supportability – this also results in lower-cost of ongoing long term support and by default such a strategy ensures timely access to ever-so-critical security patches. Feature enhancements are also an option as part of a well-planned long-term support strategy. Companies that neglect upstream strategies often encounter significantly higher maintenance costs, exposed to security vulnerabilities and shorter product lifespans.
To be clear, companies that have access to Arm and RISC-V software expertise for their products have significant advantages over their competitors who do not. Conversely, companies who do not have access to such software expertise are at a significant disadvantage vs their competitors who do have access to such software expertise.
For SoC vendors, OEMs, device makers, and software companies, partnering with expert Arm and RISC-V software engineers in these areas is crucial to deliver products that are competitive, reliable, performant, secure, and future-proof. Quality software that leverages the underlying hardware can make the difference between a market leader and an underperforming product. Companies that undervalue software face product delays, performance gaps, and security vulnerabilities, ultimately increasing the risk of market failure. Conversely, investing in top-tier software engineering accelerates market adoption, boosts reliability, and helps build lasting customer loyalty.
This is why we founded RISCstar Solutions – to bring this important software expertise to companies using Arm and RISC-V and help them get the most out of the outstanding underlying hardware and ensure their products shine brightest and last longest with the world’s best hardware.
Don’t Let Your Hardware’s Potential Go Unrealized
Without software expertise, even the most advanced SoCs can’t deliver on the promises of performance, power efficiency, and security.
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This blog was not generated by AI
