Google reportedly developing Arm-based PC CPUs; new Risc-V-based datacenter processors; acquisitions

News about Arm-based and Risc-V-based processors make up most of the updates this week. As for Risc-V, besides the two startups mentioned below, new adopters include Imagination, which this year is re-entering the CPU market with designs based around the open ISA. Speaking of Arm, according to British newspaper “The Telegraph”, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has expressed his opposition to the Nvidia-Arm deal. The Sunday Telegraph also understands that Amazon and Samsung have lodged opposition to the deal with US authorities. As far as EDA is concerned, a very recent update is the resignation of Babak Taheri as chief executive officer of Silvaco and member of the board after two years in the role. The official press release does not provide any explanations for this decision. Let’s now move to the other news.

Translating C++ algorithms to RTL for Microchip FPGA programming

Microchip has added an HLS design workflow. called SmartHLS, to its PolarFire FPGA families that allows C++ algorithms to be directly translated to FPGA-optimized RTL code. The solution is aimed at applications involving edge compute, computer vision and industrial control algorithms that are developed natively in C++ by developers with little or no knowledge of underlying FPGA hardware. The SmartHLS design suite is based on the open-source Eclipse integrated development environment. According to Microchip, the SmartHLS tool requires up to ten times fewer lines of code than an equivalent RTL design.

Google reportedly developing Arm-based CPUs for notebook and tablet PCs

According to Nikkei Asia, Google is developing its own Arm-based CPUs for its notebook and tablet computers which run on the company’s Chrome operating system. Roll out would be planned for 2023. Google is also reportedly ramping up its efforts to build Arm-based mobile processors for its Pixel smartphones and other devices. The company is hiring chip engineers in the US and around the world, including in Israel, India and Taiwan.

Esperanto’s Risc-V-based supercomputer chip has over a thousand cores

Unveiled at the recent Hot Chips 33 conference, the new ET-SoC-1 “supercomputer-on-a-chip” developed by Esperanto Technologies features over a thousand Risc-V custom processor cores and is designed to be “the highest performance commercial Risc-V chip.” Operating at under 20 Watts, the air-cooled chip specifically targets machine learning recommendation models, one of the most important types of AI workloads in many large datacenters. Esperanto is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with engineering sites in Portland, Oregon, Barcelona, Spain, and Belgrade, Serbia.

The chip developed by Esperanto. Credit: Esperanto Technologies

Risc-V-based chiplet developer Ventana raises $38 million in Series B funding

Also developing datacenter class Risc-V processors is Ventana (Cupertino, CA), which has recently raised $38 million in its Series B funding round led by Marvell founders and other semiconductor investors. Ventana, however, has developed a modular, scalable chiplet-based product strategy, which – according to the company – enables significant reduction in development time and cost compared to the prevailing IP model. While Ventana’s compute chiplets maximize performance by targeting cutting edge process geometries, customers can implement their unique SoC chiplet silicon in the most optimal process node for the target application. Chiplets are connected through a parallel die-to-die (D2D) solution compliant with the OCP Open Domain-Specific Architecture (ODSA) physical interface standard.

New Arm-based, AI-enabled, low-power SoCs for IoT applications

Founded in 2019, Alif Semiconductor (Pleasenton, CA) has introduced two new families of Arm-based microcontrollers and ‘fusion processors’ targeted at IoT applications. The Ensemble family scales from single Arm Cortex-M55 MCUs to multi-core devices — ‘fusion processors’ — that integrate up to two Cortex-M55 MCU cores, up to two Cortex-A32 microprocessors cores, up to two Arm Ethos-U55 microNPUs for artificial intelligence and machine learning acceleration, and a secure enclave. The Crescendo family offers the same functionality as the Ensemble family, with the addition of LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT Cellular connectivity, optional iSIM, integrated RF, power amplifiers, and a concurrent GNSS receiver. To reduce power consumption, Alif has developer its Autonomous Intelligent Power Management (aiPM) technology that allows fine-grained control of when resources in the chip are being powered. According to Alif, the two new processor families fill a significant gap in the market.

Acquisitions

Ansys has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zemax (Kirkland, Washington) a provider of optical imaging system simulation solutions. The acquisition will expand the Ansys portfolio to provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions for simulating sophisticated optical- and photonics-enabled products.

Synaptics will acquire DSP Group, a provider of voice and wireless chipset solutions for converged communications. Expected technological synergies mostly concern IoT and home security applications, such as the combination of DSP Group’s SmartVoice products with Synaptics’ Katana vision platform, and the addition of DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE) solutions.

Onsemi will acquire GT Advanced Technologies (Hudson, NH, USA), a producer of silicon carbide, for $415 million in cash. The transaction is expected to better position Onsemi to secure and grow supply of SiC and meet rapidly growing customer demand for SiC-based solutions, including EVs, EV charging and energy infrastructure. Onsemi plans to invest in expanding GTAT’s research and development efforts to advance 150mm and 200mm SiC crystal growth technology, while also investing in the broader SiC supply chain, including fab capacity and packaging.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Western Digital is in advanced talks to merge with Japan’s Kioxia, in a deal that could be valued at more than $20 billion. Stock deal could be finalized as early as the middle of September.

Upcoming events

On 17 September, Infineon will officially start the production of power semiconductors in its new, 300-millimeter thin wafer chip factory in Villach, Austria. The opening ceremony can be watched online.

The International Test Conference will be held as a virtual event from October 10 to 15.

Arm DevSummit 2021 will be held as a virtual conference from October 19 to 21.

The Linley Fall Processor Conference will return to Santa Clara on October 20-21. The in-person conference will be followed by a virtual event on October 27-29 and November 3-5.

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