By Kate Yuan

T-Head (平头哥), Alibaba's semiconductor subsidiary, has had its first patches merged into Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an initiative by Google. This is the first time that Android officially supports the RISC-V architecture, JW Insights reported on October 23.

It also symbolizes the further expansion of the RSIC-V ecosystem, marching into the mobile phone market of more than 1 billion processors a year.

T-Head has submitted 76 patches so far including Bionic Libc and simulators, becoming the world's first RISC-V patches for Android system.

T-Head reached a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) with Google in June this year to carry out technical cooperation on the Android system’s support in RISC-V architecture. After that, Google's AOSP began to accept T-Head’s patches.

Chinese companies are actively looking for alternative solutions due to continuous technical limitations, hoping to reduce dependence on the x86 and Arm architecture through RSIC-V.

More and more software and hardware supporting RSIC-V create huge growth potential. The world's top two mobile phone processor suppliers Qualcomm and MediaTek have reinvested in SiFive and Andes Technology respectively, and Apple has also established a RISC-V team.