Achronix and Napatech Partner to Target Data Center Networking

Joint Solution Delivers High-Speed Programmable FPGA-Based SmartNICs

Santa Clara, Calif., April 27, 2021 – Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a leader in high-performance FPGAs and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP, and Napatech, the leading provider of FPGA-based SmartNICs, today announced a partnership to deliver a new class of high-speed, programmable, FPGA-based SmartNICs to data center network operators.

The solution combines the Achronix Speedster®7t FPGA with Napatech's SmartNIC software, to deliver the optimal mix of price, performance, power and feature set for SmartNIC designs. The partnership provides Napatech access to Achronix's high-performance Speedster7t FPGA technology, while also providing Achronix access to Napatech's SmartNIC software and hardware designs.

Napatech's FPGA-based SmartNICs address the performance gap of standard server platforms by offering customizable data processing acceleration that can offload CPUs in a scalable manner while offering high system performance and lower power compared to CPU-only based solutions. Combining Achronix Speedster7t FPGAs, Speedcore™ eFPGA IP and Napatech SmartNIC solutions improves the performance of a wide range of applications and services for cloud data center operators, 5G mobile telecom service providers, enterprise data centers, government, and research organizations.

Achronix's latest Speedster7t FPGA is the ideal fit for SmartNIC applications. With the first device shipping now, the Speedster AC7t1500 provides 692k look-up-tables (LUTs), 195 Mb of memory, 400G Ethernet interfaces, support for PCIe Gen5 and eight GDDR6 memory interfaces. It is also the first FPGA available with a 2D network on chip (NoC) which helps to support high-speed data transfers from external data interfaces to the FPGA's internal logic. This 2D NoC helps to streamline data transfers within the Speedster7t FPGA, delivering a total bandwidth of greater than 20 Tbps.

Steve Mensor, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at Achronix Semiconductor said, "Achronix is excited to partner with Napatech to provide high-performance SmartNIC solutions to our global customer base. Napatech's industry-leading SmartNIC solutions combined with our Speedster7t FPGA is the ideal platform for the most demanding data acceleration applications."

Jarrod Siket, Chief Marketing Officer, Napatech said, "We are impressed with the full suite of capabilities of Achronix's Speedster7t FPGA products. Achronix has a reputation of pushing the envelope in FPGA design and that shines through in the capabilities of the Speedster7t FPGAs that are important in networking. Combining their FPGAs with our SmartNIC hardware and software, brings a compelling solution to our shared customers in the networking and communications markets."

In January 2021, Achronix entered into a definitive merger agreement with ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: ACEV) in a transaction that would result in Achronix being listed on Nasdaq. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021.

About Napatech

Napatech helps companies to reimagine their business by bringing hyperscale computing benefits to IT organizations of every size. We enhance open and standard virtualized servers to boost innovation and release valuable computing resources that improve services and increase revenue. Our programmable SmartNICs are based on a broad set of FPGA software for leading IT compute, network and security applications that are supported on a wide array of FPGA hardware designs. Additional information is available at: www.napatech.com.

About Achronix Semiconductor Corporation

Achronix Semiconductor Corporation is a fabless semiconductor corporation based in Santa Clara, California, offering high-end FPGA-based data acceleration solutions, designed to address high-performance, compute-intensive and real-time processing applications. Achronix FPGA and eFPGA IP offerings are further enhanced by ready-to-use accelerator cards targeting AI, machine learning, networking and data center applications. All Achronix products are fully supported by a complete and optimized range of Achronix software tools called ACE, which enables customers to quickly develop their own custom applications.

Achronix has a global footprint, with sales and design teams across the U.S., Europe and Asia. In January 2021, Achronix entered into a definitive merger agreement with ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: ACEV) in a transaction that would result in Achronix being listed on Nasdaq. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021.