Pathfinder has been subject to losses since its release, Intel was unable to sustain that.
Pathfinder, Intel’s open source RISC-V developer environment, looks to have been discreetly discontinued. Since Pathfinder was only revealed in August 2022, the announcement may come as a surprise to many SoC architects, software developers, and product research teams, but it may have been predicted by others.
The corporation announced a disastrous finish to 2022, with losses of $661 million in just its fourth quarter alone, and has suspended several of its other operations. In addition, 544 of its employees in California face the possibility of being laid off, and the corporation is preparing to make what it refers to as a “significant number” of employment cuts.
The number of RISC-V-focused efforts that have been released over the years is listed in the news release that introduces Pathfinder in 2022, demonstrating Intel’s dedication. However, just a few months later, people started to complain that it had been slashed.
The webpage emphasises that bug fixes have also been discontinued and instructs customers to “promptly transfer” to alternative RISC-V software products.
The application was created to aid users in creating RISC-V circuits using toolchains that were accepted in the industry, and as such, it has received backing from a number of RISC-V businesses. It was divided into a Professional Edition and a Starter Edition for beginners that was less feature-rich.
The fact that Vijay Krishnan was promoted to general manager for new initiatives after serving as the company’s general manager for RISC-V ventures for more than a year and a half prior to its closure this month suggests that Intel is temporarily abandoning its RISC-V activities.
