# Architectural Comparisons

This table compares important factors for a decision in which ISA to use
and support

[[!table  data="""
Feature/Need        | RISC-V | MIPS    | OpenPOWER  | OpenRISC |
Open                | NO (1) | NO (2)  | WIP (3)    | Yes      |
Libre-friendly      | NO (1) | unknown | Yes        | Yes      |
Trademarked         | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
Extensible          | NO (4) | unknown | Potentially (5)        | Yes      |
gcc                 | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | Yes      |
llvm                | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | Yes      |
llvm upstream       | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
distros (debian)    | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
distros (ubuntu)    | No     | No      | Yes        | No       |
distros (fedora)    | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
buildroot           | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | Yes      |
linux kernel        | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | Yes      |
64-bit linux        | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
virtualizable       | Yes    | unknown | Yes        | No (6)   |
64-bit asics        | many   | many    | many       | none     |
sw community size   | large  | medium  | very large | tiny (7) |
little-endian asics | Yes    | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
Java (OpenJDK)      | no JIT | unknown | Yes        | No       |
Java (Android)      | No?    | Yes     | No         | No       |
V8 node.js/chromium | no JIT | Yes     | Yes        | No       |
PyPy                | No     | No      | Yes        | No       |
Mono (.net)         | No?    | 32-bit  | Yes        | No       |
Spidermonkey (Firefox JS) | no JIT | Yes (JIT Unsupported) | no JIT | No |
"""]]

* (1) too numerous reasons to count, for well over 4 years.
* (2) efforts to be "open" have stalled, website non-functional
* (3) OpenPower Foundation making a huge effort, really appreciated
* (4) repeated in-good-faith requests for participation and inclusion in
  extending RISC-V have met with stone-cold silence for over 18 months,
  in direct violation of Trademark Law's clear-cut responsibilities.
* (5) provisionally and in principle: yes.  however as of 2019jan21 this is
  yet to be tested and an agreement reached.
* (6) no mentions of virtualization found in spec
* (7) dozens to hundreds of people, several companies