Industry Expert Blogs

Enabling more choice for Next-Generation Heterogeneous Compute Platforms

I am excited to see Intel's new Foundry services business (IFS) in the U.S. and Europe increase the opportunity and choice for the semiconductor industry. We’re pleased to see Intel recognize the utility and opportunity for the RISC-V instruction set architecture in partnering to enable SiFive’s industry-leading Core IP portfolio to enable a new wave of leading-edge technology.

SiFive is the leading provider of processor cores, accelerators, and SoC IP that technology companies will license to create workload-focused platforms based on the free and open RISC-V specification. While hyperscale computing requirements are increasing and being augmented by decentralized edge datacenters and endpoint on-device processing, the need for IP to power configurable platforms is growing stronger every day. The advantages of SiFive Core IP and the newly added choice of IFS' new business services and leading-edge high-performance capabilities enable our customers to develop these next-generation computing platforms.

SiFive offers scalable, configurable, silicon-proven RISC-V processor cores pre-integrated with security, advanced trace, and debug features for workload-specific designs. SiFive’s industry-leading portfolio of processor IP scales from Linux-capable high-performance 64-bit multi-core clusters through to power and area-optimized real-time 64-bit and 32-bit cores. Chip designers can use SiFive’s pre-configured standard cores or configure cores optimized for their specific application using the award-winning SiFive Core Designer cloud-based tool. For mission-critical markets, SiFive’s Core IP supports deterministic operation, as described in this technical paper (PDF) by semiconductor industry analyst, Linley Gwenapp.

The RISC-V ecosystem is growing rapidly as more leading technology companies invest in RISC-V hardware and software development to secure their technology roadmaps and guide their own future product development. SiFive’s inclusion in the Intel Foundry Services business demonstrates the industry-wide support and adoption of RISC-V, especially in markets seeking high-performance, leading-edge technology. A wide range of software companies and developers are exploring the potential for RISC-V, which was recently demonstrated by running AWS IoT Greengrass on the SiFive HiFive Unmatched developer board, by Aicas.

SiFive Core IP has been adopted worldwide and is available in products by leading technology companies including ArchiTek, BBC Learning, Coherent Logix, Innovium, FADU, Huami, MicroChip, Synaptics, Qualcomm, and Samsung. SiFive continues to develop new technologies for workload-focused platforms based on open standards to enable higher levels of performance, efficiency, and deeper vertical integration that will enable differentiated computing solutions. Last year, we unveiled the SiFive 20G1 release, and will soon announce the SiFive 21G1 release with new features and improvements as part of our continuous innovation program for our RISC-V IP portfolio.

Learn more about SiFive processor IP here, and more about the new Intel Foundry Services unit here.