RISC-V Laptops Really Arrive in 2025

Buried in the inner workings of your laptop is a secret blueprint, dictating the set of instructions the computer can execute and serving as the interface between hardware and software. The instructions are immutable and hidden behind proprietary technology. But starting in 2025, you could buy a new and improved laptop whose secrets are known to all. That laptop will be fully customizable, with both hardware and software you’ll be able to be modified to fit your needs.

RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) poised to make personal computing more, well, personal. Though RISC-V is still early in its life cycle, it’s now possible to buy fully functional computers with this technology inside—a key step toward providing a viable alternative to
x86 and Arm in mainstream consumer electronics.

“If we look at a couple of generations down the [software] stack, we’re starting to see a line of sight to consumer-ready RISC-V in something like a laptop, or even a phone,” said
Nirav Patel, CEO of laptop maker Framework.

Patel’s company plans to release a laptop that can support a RISC-V mainboard in 2025. Though still intended for early adopters and developers, it will be the most accessible and polished RISC-V laptop yet, and it will ship to users with the same look and feel as the Framework laptops that use
x86 chips.

RISC-V Is Coming to a Laptop Near You

An ISA is a rulebook that defines the set of valid instructions programs can execute on a processor. Like other ISAs, RISC-V includes dozens of instructions, such as loading data into memory or floating-point arithmetic operations. But RISC-V is open source, which sets it apart from closed ISAs like
x86 and Arm. It means anyone can use RISC-V without a license fee. It also makes RISC-V hardware easy to customize, because there are no license restrictions on what can or can’t be modified.

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley’s Parallel Computing Laboratory began developing the RISC-V ISA
in 2010 based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles, and it’s already in use by companies looking to design inexpensive, specialized chips: Alibaba put RISC-V to work in a chip development platform for edge computing, and Western Digital used RISC-V for storage controllers.

Now, a small group of companies and enthusiasts are laying the groundwork for bringing RISC-V to mainstream consumer devices. Among these pioneers is software engineer
Yuning Liang, who found himself drawn to the idea while sidelined by COVID lockdowns in Shenzhen, China.

Unable to continue previous work, “I had to ask, what can I do here?” says Liang. “Mark Himelstein, the former CTO of RISC-V [International], mentioned we should do a laptop on a 12-nanometer RISC-V test chip.” Because the 12-nm node is an older production process than CPUs use today, each chip costs less.

DeepComputing released the first RISC-V laptop, Roma, in 2023, followed by the DC-Roma II a year later.DeepComputing

The project had a slow start amid COVID-related supply-chain issues but eventually led to the 2023 release of the world’s first RISC-V laptop, the Roma, by DeepComputing—a Hong Kong–based company Liang founded the prior year. It was followed in 2024 by the DC-Roma II, which shipped with the open-source Ubuntu operating system preinstalled, making it capable of basic computing tasks straight out of the box.

DeepComputing is
now working in partnership with Framework, a laptop maker founded in 2019 with the mission to “fix consumer electronics,” as it’s put on the company’s website. Framework sells modular, user-repairable laptops that owners can keep indefinitely, upgrading parts (including those that can’t usually be replaced, like the mainboard and display) over time.

“The Framework laptop mainboard is a place for board developers to come in and create their own,” says Patel. The company hopes its laptops can accelerate the adoption of open-source hardware by offering a platform where board makers can “deliver system-level solutions,” Patel adds, without the need to design their own laptop in-house.

Closing the Price and Performance Gap

The DeepComputing DC-Roma II laptop marked a major milestone for open source computing, and not just because it shipped with Ubuntu installed. It was the first RISC-V laptop to receive widespread media coverage, especially on YouTube, where
video reviews of the DC-Roma II (as well as other RISC-V single-board computers, such as the Milk-V Pioneer and Lichee Pi 4A) collectively received more than a million views.

Even so, Liang was quick to acknowledge a flaw found by many online reviewers: The RISC-V chip in the DC-Roma II performs well behind
x86 and Arm-powered alternatives. DeepComputing wants to tackle that in 2025 with the DC-Roma III, according to Liang.

In the coming year, “performance will be much better. It’ll still be on 12-nanometer [processors], but we’re going to upgrade the CPU’s performance to be more like an Arm Cortex-A76,” says Liang. The Cortex-A76 is a key architecture to benchmark RISC-V against, as it’s used by chips in high-volume single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi 5.

Liang isn’t alone in his dream of high-performance RISC-V chips. Ventana, founded in 2018, is designing high-performance data-center chips that rely on the open-source ISA.

Balaji Baktha, Ventana’s founder and CEO, is adamant that RISC-V chips will go toe-to-toe with x86 and Arm across a variety of products. “There’s nothing that is ISA specific that determines if you can make something high performance, or not,” he says. “It’s the implementation of the microarchitecture that matters.”

DeepComputing also wants to make RISC-V appealing with lower prices. At about US $600, the DC-Roma II isn’t much more expensive than a midrange Windows laptop like an Acer Aspire or Dell Inspiron, but online reviews note its performance is more in line with that of budget laptops that sell for much less. Liang says that’s due to the laptop’s low production volume: The DC-Roma II was produced in “the low tens of thousands,” according to Liang. DeepComputing hopes to increase production to 100,000 units for the DC-Roma III, he adds.

If that pans out, it should make all DeepComputing laptops more competitive with those using
x86 and Arm. That’s important to Liang, who sees affordability as synonymous with openness; both lower the barriers for newcomers.

“If we can open up even the chip design, then one day, even students at schools and universities can come into class and design their own chips, with open tools,” says Liang. “With openness, you can choose to build things yourself from zero.”