Design & Reuse

Soft Machines: Promising, Not Proven

Latest simulations look impressive
Kevin Krewell, Principal Analyst, Tirias Research
2/12/2016 08:30 PM ES

Veteran microprocessor analyst Kevin Krewell plumbs startup Soft Machines' VISC technology following a recent release of updated simulation data of its promising multicore architecture.

Soft Machines is working on a new architecture that, if successful, will represent a major breakthrough in single- and multicore CPU performance. The company claims it can build a multicore processor where hardware orchestration logic allows multiple CPU cores to act as one, significantly improving instruction per cycle (IPC) performance over a single CPU core and allowing multicore processors to perform significantly better on single-threaded code.

The company has built a multi-national team, raised $175 million and is now close to demonstrating the first real products using its VISC technology. Soft Machine’s business model is flexible – offering a mix of both chips and licensable CPU IP.