Codeplay Software partners with Andes Technology to achieve Software First SoC Design for AI-based applications using RISC-V Vector Processors

Codeplay’s Acoran Software Platform adds support for AndesCore™ NX27V.

San Francisco, California – December 6, 2021 – Codeplay Software®, the industry leader and pioneer in Open-Standard software tools and services for artificial intelligence, machine-learning, and high-performance computing announced support for Andes Technology Corporation’s AndesCore™ NX27V IP. Andes Technology is a leader in high-performance / low-power IP and a founding premier member of RISC-V International. The NX27V is an RV64GC vector processor supporting the RISC-V Vector specification with up to 512-bit VLEN and SIMD width (or DLEN). It allows SoC designers to create next-generation compute-acceleration solutions that leverage AI, ML, and HPC in both the edge and the cloud. Initially, Codeplay will deliver support through the AndesCore performance simulator that provides near cycle accurate information. This will enable customers to implement a software-first strategy and then move to specific SoC architecture based on the NX27V.

Compute-accelerated solutions need a new programming model to leverage all the capabilities of the processing power available. Incorporating one or more vector processor cores, SoC developers and designers can create applications that leverage a Single-Instruction / Multi Data (SIMD) heterogeneous architecture. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications are required to process a significant amount of vector data for applications like neural networks and computer-vision algorithms seen in cloud acceleration cards, autonomous vehicles and visual recognition. A powerful vector processor like the NX27V can rapidly increase the performance of processing this data.

Coldplay’s Acoran software platform support for NX27V-based simulator and then SoC will provide a wide ecosystem of domain-specific optimized libraries for exascale and artificial intelligence. A key foundation of Acoran is SYCL, an open standard programming model that enables heterogeneous programming based on standard ISO C++.

“The NX27V has been adopted by about 10 customer SoC projects for the datacenter accelerators. All incorporate multiple instances of our vector processor in cluster-based heterogenous architecture,” said Dr. Charlie Su, President and CTO at Andes Technology. “The exciting partnership with Codeplay enables us to bring elegant programming solutions to our customers. We are at the beginning of the next wave SoCs with Domain-Specific Architecture (DSA) for applications ranging from embedded devices to datacenter accelerators that support AI and HPC. The growth potential in this area is enormous.”

“Codeplay is embracing the software-first approach to designing complex compute systems,” said Andrew Richards, CEO and founder of Codeplay Software. “This partnership with Andes will bring developers of RISC-V vector SoCs the opportunity to optimize their architecture based on real application software.”

“Collaboration is at the heart of the RISC-V ecosystem, so it’s great to see members join forces to develop innovative new approaches for the benefit of the entire community,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “Together, Andes Technology and Codeplay Software are offering a solution to allow developers and designers to leverage the best of open standards for hardware and software.”

“SYCL has been adopted by organizations building large supercomputers with a variety of GPU architectures. This partnership will help to bring open standard programming to the next generation of specialist processors implementing the RISC-V ISA, which is very exciting for hardware and software developers,” said Michael Wong, Chair of SYCL Working Group within The Khronos Group, Chair of Datacenter / Cloud Computing SIG with RISC-V International, and Distinguished Engineer at Codeplay Software.

Codeplay and Andes welcome companies looking to embrace RVV for accelerating their AI systems to evaluate the solution.

About Andes Technology

Sixteen years in business and a Founding Premier member of RISC-V International, Andes Technology (TWSE: 6533; SIN: US03420C2089; ISIN: US03420C1099) is a leading supplier of high-performance/low-power 32/64-bit embedded processor IP solutions, and the driving force in taking RISC-V mainstream. Andes’ fifth-generation AndeStar™ architecture adopted the RISC-V as the base. Its V5 RISC-V CPU families range from tiny 32-bit cores to advanced 64-bit cores with DSP, FPU, Vector, Linux, superscalar, and/or multicore capabilities. The annual volume of Andes-Embedded SoCs has exceeded 2 billion since 2020 and continues to rise. At the end of Q3 2021, the cumulative volume of Andes-Embedded™ SoCs has reached 9 billion. For more information, please visit https://www.andestech.com.

About Codeplay Software

Codeplay Software is a world pioneer in enabling acceleration technologies used in AI, HPC and automotive. Codeplay was established in 2002 in Edinburgh, Scotland and developed some of the first tools enabling complex software to be accelerated using graphics processors. Today, most AI software is developed using graphics processors designed for video games, and more recently specialized AI and computer vision accelerators. Codeplay continues to work with global technology leaders to make the latest complex AI systems programmable using open standards based programming languages and allows application developers to quickly bring software to the market. Codeplay is also deeply involved with the definition of open standards, especially OpenCL™, SPIR™, SYCL™, and Vulkan™ through The Khronos Group, and MISRA C++ for automotive.
SYCL, SPIR, Vulkan are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. OpenCL and the OpenCL logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. used by permission by Khronos.

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