In this episode of Micro Journeys, host Daniel Marrujo sits down with Jack Kang, SVP of Business Development, Customer Experience, and Corporate Marketing at SiFive, to explore the fascinating trajectory of his career—from building CPUs at Marvell to helping lead the charge on RISC-V technology at SiFive. Jack shares how his early education and hands-on experiences at UC Berkeley shaped his technical foundation, and how a pivotal moment as a teaching assistant under computing legend Dave Patterson set the course for his professional evolution.
As the conversation unfolds, Jack reveals the inner workings of some of the biggest moments in his career, including his role in winning the Nintendo Switch design at NVIDIA and the massive implications of the RISC-V open standard. He demystifies key concepts like the difference between open standards and open source, and explains why this distinction is critical in shaping the future of microelectronics, particularly in aerospace, defense, and edge AI computing.
Ultimately, Jack paints a compelling picture of a technology that isn’t just disrupting the industry—it’s enabling sustainability, security, and long-term innovation. RISC-V is more than a buzzword, it’s the foundation for a scalable, programmable future in computing, with SiFive at the helm.