Sustainable Computing Through Open Standard ISAs: Leveraging Tailor-Fit Hardware Designs for Circular Economies

The increase in demand for computational power along with society’s reliance on proprietary processor architectures, raise concerns about processor sovereignty and prompts the exploration of open standard instruction set architectures (ISAs) such as RISC-V. Concurrently, the impact of e-waste in the environment and society’s resource consumption highlights the need for circular economy principles and sustainable production methods within the electronic industry. In this study, computational power, open standard ISAs are explored to survey recent hardware implementations, particularly of RISC-V processors with a focus on power efficiency gains. We argue that integrating open standard ISAs, circular economy strategies, and sustainable production practices may contribute to resilient and responsible products. This approach addresses some of the questions in resource sustainability and invites further exploration of the potential of open-source processor implementations to improve the way that electronic devices are produced and consumed.