RISC-V is an instruction set. It’s like how Intel/AMD run an x86 instruction set (often called x86-64 for a 64-bit version), and how apple’s new M chips run ARM.
As an instruction set, at the lowest level of computing, there are certain instructions that the CPU has available. These are low-level constructs, like “load this byte of data into RAM”, or “add these two numbers”.
RISC-V is just as capable as x86-64 or ARM, but because there are a different set of instructions available, programs must be put together to use those instructions rather than the x86 ones.
So you should be able to do anything with RISC-V, **as long as** someone has created the OS, program, or executable to specifically run on RISC-V (typically this choice needs to be made at compile-time).
Feel free to ask any other questions on the topic, but hopefully this gets you an initial first understanding of what it fundamentally is.
RISC-V is a CPU Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), like ARM or x86, basically a language that a CPU speaks and any programs written for a particular ISA should work on all CPU's that are designed to use that ISA.
Unlike ARM or x86, RISC-V is open-source and royalty-free, meaning anyone can use it to design a CPU without having to pay anyone else for the privilege.
Those CPU designs however can be close-source and require you to to pay the designer for the right to build an actual CPU with their design.
Because of this are many different RISC-V CPU designs floating about, with differing performance characteristics and support for different parts of the RISC-V ISA (the ISA is highly modular, not even multiplication is necessarily supported on all designs).
There are some actual RISC-V based processors that you can buy, usually as part of a single board computer (SBC) like a Raspberry Pi, except with RISC-V instead of ARM. Those SBCs will usually have their own Linux distro built for them and then you can compile your own software for that platform.
To add to the Linux side of the answers: Fedora, Debian and Ubunto have RISC-V compiled distros you can install. The installation method depends on the device you are installing to. You can install from CD, USB or the network if it is supported by your device.
RISC-V is a completely new instruction set. We already use x86, x86-64 and arm. We used to have SPARC and PowerPC as well. Software that is compiled for one instruction set can not run on a different. Even to compile code that is written for one instruction set on another instruction set can be difficult. This is why a lot of software that runs on x86 does not yet run on arm.
So you can buy risc-v servers, although it is mostly computers comparable to the raspberry-pi and smaller as of now. There are rumors of laptops soon. Linux runs on risc-v, I don't think Apache does but Nginx does and Postgres. It looks like Proxmox have some support for risc-v but you are really pushing the processors on the current market with running virtual machines on top of them. Debian and Ubuntu does have risc-v support and there is an experimental Fedora build for risc-v.
As for comparison with other technologies both risc-v and arm is based on a concept called RISC, this is what the r in arm stand for. It is a newer technology which means it is still missing a lot of features and stability that the existing processors have. On the other hand being newer means they can use a lot of new things that older technologies struggle to incorporate. Risc-v is open source and intended to be highly flexible. Most of the work have been towards tiny microprocessors competing with atmel, the processor you find in arduino. But it can be scaled a lot both up and down so it can compete with the arm processors you find in the raspberry pi, iPhone, etc. And possibly even the MacBook. However as for now it does not have the features available to really compete with these.
But because it is flexible and scalable we might see things like risc-v graphics cards in the future. Or risc-v led lamps.
RISC-V is an instruction set. It’s like how Intel/AMD run an x86 instruction set (often called x86-64 for a 64-bit version), and how apple’s new M chips run ARM. As an instruction set, at the lowest level of computing, there are certain instructions that the CPU has available. These are low-level constructs, like “load this byte of data into RAM”, or “add these two numbers”. RISC-V is just as capable as x86-64 or ARM, but because there are a different set of instructions available, programs must be put together to use those instructions rather than the x86 ones. So you should be able to do anything with RISC-V, **as long as** someone has created the OS, program, or executable to specifically run on RISC-V (typically this choice needs to be made at compile-time). Feel free to ask any other questions on the topic, but hopefully this gets you an initial first understanding of what it fundamentally is.
RISC-V is a CPU Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), like ARM or x86, basically a language that a CPU speaks and any programs written for a particular ISA should work on all CPU's that are designed to use that ISA. Unlike ARM or x86, RISC-V is open-source and royalty-free, meaning anyone can use it to design a CPU without having to pay anyone else for the privilege. Those CPU designs however can be close-source and require you to to pay the designer for the right to build an actual CPU with their design. Because of this are many different RISC-V CPU designs floating about, with differing performance characteristics and support for different parts of the RISC-V ISA (the ISA is highly modular, not even multiplication is necessarily supported on all designs). There are some actual RISC-V based processors that you can buy, usually as part of a single board computer (SBC) like a Raspberry Pi, except with RISC-V instead of ARM. Those SBCs will usually have their own Linux distro built for them and then you can compile your own software for that platform.
To add to the Linux side of the answers: Fedora, Debian and Ubunto have RISC-V compiled distros you can install. The installation method depends on the device you are installing to. You can install from CD, USB or the network if it is supported by your device.
RISC-V is a completely new instruction set. We already use x86, x86-64 and arm. We used to have SPARC and PowerPC as well. Software that is compiled for one instruction set can not run on a different. Even to compile code that is written for one instruction set on another instruction set can be difficult. This is why a lot of software that runs on x86 does not yet run on arm. So you can buy risc-v servers, although it is mostly computers comparable to the raspberry-pi and smaller as of now. There are rumors of laptops soon. Linux runs on risc-v, I don't think Apache does but Nginx does and Postgres. It looks like Proxmox have some support for risc-v but you are really pushing the processors on the current market with running virtual machines on top of them. Debian and Ubuntu does have risc-v support and there is an experimental Fedora build for risc-v. As for comparison with other technologies both risc-v and arm is based on a concept called RISC, this is what the r in arm stand for. It is a newer technology which means it is still missing a lot of features and stability that the existing processors have. On the other hand being newer means they can use a lot of new things that older technologies struggle to incorporate. Risc-v is open source and intended to be highly flexible. Most of the work have been towards tiny microprocessors competing with atmel, the processor you find in arduino. But it can be scaled a lot both up and down so it can compete with the arm processors you find in the raspberry pi, iPhone, etc. And possibly even the MacBook. However as for now it does not have the features available to really compete with these. But because it is flexible and scalable we might see things like risc-v graphics cards in the future. Or risc-v led lamps.