10 interview questions and answers on RISC-V Architecture

Here’s a list of questions and answers about the RISC-V Architecture. This guide can help you prepare for job interviews for RISC-V skill requirements.

List of 10 RISC-V Questions and Answers

Question 1: What is RISC-V?

Answer 1: RISC-V is an open standard Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) based on the RISC principles, freely available for anyone to use and extend.

Question 2: What are the base instruction sets in RISC-V?

Answer 2: RV32I, RV64I, and RV128I are the base sets. They can be extended with optional sets like M (multiply), A (atomic), F (float), D (double float), C (compressed).

Question 3: What makes RISC-V open and extensible?

Answer 3: It is released under a permissive license allowing researchers and companies to modify and implement their own custom extensions.

Question 4: Name two companies using RISC-V.

Answer 4: SiFive and Alibaba’s T-Head are notable users of RISC-V cores in products.

Question 5: How is memory managed in RISC-V?

Answer 5: Through load store architecture and support for page-based virtual memory.

Question 6: What is the role of RISC-V in embedded systems?

Answer 6: Its simplicity and low power make it ideal for microcontrollers and IoT devices.

Question 7: How does RISC-V compare to ARM?

Answer 7: RISC-V is open and free to use, unlike ARM which requires licensing. RISC-V is also more modular.

Question 8: What is a privilege mode in RISC-V?

Answer 8: RISC-V supports three modes: User (U), Supervisor (S), and Machine (M) mode.

Question 9: What is RV64GC?

Answer 9: A common RISC-V configuration including 64-bit base (RV64) with G extension set (IMAFDC).

Question 10: How is RISC-V implemented in hardware?

Answer 10: Through RTL implementations like Rocket-chip (Chisel), PicoRV32, and BOOM.