Platforms and processors

The computer industry is experiencing an exciting era of growth, with a diverse range of processors emerging, including microcontrollers, x86, dedicated NPUs, and GP RISC-V. The x86 beat out almost all other processors, reducing them to a few embedded platforms or hobbyists’ hands: the venerable 6502, Motorola’s vaunted 6xx00 series, SPARC, MIPs, and a half dozen others. Enabled and empowered by the economy of scale from the PC and having an inherently scalable architecture, the x86 overcame all contenders except one—Arm. Just as x86 was laying waste to the big RISC processors, an unassuming tiny RISC processor appeared, encouraged and