We’re starting to get open source instruction set RISC-V boards which shows great promise for a more open hardware format and possibly cheaper boards with more manufacturers competing. ARM is also based on reduced instruction set computer architecture, but involves a licensing fee to use. Consequently, RISC-V is open-source and royalty free. It’s still early days but there is GNU/Linux OS support already, and as we get more projects released we should see quite a bit more support, especially when being used in other hardware device projects utilizing SBCs. This could have major implications for computer manufacturing and the server market going forward as well.
RISC-V, by contrast, is a totally open-source and royalty-free ISA. It began development in 2010 as a project of UC Berkeley’s Parallel Computing Laboratory, but over the course of 5 years became something much bigger. Eventually, 36 tech companies came together to support RISC-V and founded the RISC-V Foundation. In 2020, the RISC-V Foundation renamed itself RISC-V International.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/arm-vs-risc-v/
https://liliputing.com/star64-risc-v-single-board-pc-launches-april-4-for-70-and-up/