SiFive Announces Strategic Partnership with QuickLogic and Launches SoC Templates for Rapid Chip Design

RISC-V Pioneer and Ultra-Low Power Leader Bring Freedom Aware SoC Templates to Market

SiFive, the leading provider of RISC-V core IP, development tools, and silicon solutions, announced the Freedom Aware (FA) family of SoC Templates and its strategic development partnership with QuickLogic Corporation , an innovator of ultra-low power voice-enabled SoCs, embedded FPGA IP, and endpoint AI software tools and solutions. The Freedom Aware family of SoC Templates extends SiFive’s chip design capabilities and radically lowers the cost and development time associated with new SoC designs.

Freedom Aware SoC Templates revolutionize the SoC development process and lower risk through the use of tested building blocks and a full suite of sophisticated development tools that ensure finished SoCs mirror the results of pre-fabrication software emulations. Taking advantage of SoC Templates, users can greatly reduce the design cycle to only a few months, reduce the total cost to first silicon by an order of magnitude, and most importantly, provide custom silicon solutions while removing the dependency on large semiconductor design teams.

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“We are extremely proud of our strategic partnership with SiFive and the role we are playing in the development of the industry’s first family of SoC Templates,” said Brian Faith, president and CEO of QuickLogic. “SoC Templates are what the industry needs to accelerate the development and introduction of the highly diverse products that are broadly referred to as the Internet of Things. SoC Templates further our shared vision of democratizing technology and with that, significantly extend the potential and reach of our IP business model.”

The Freedom Aware SoC Templates leverage SiFive’s heterogeneous multi-core architecture and QuickLogic’s AI subsystem that is available with programmable acceleration and sophisticated power-management technology that delivers ultra-low power solutions optimized for battery-powered consumer and industrial IoT applications.

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The Freedom Aware family of SoC Templates includes:

FA MCU for IoT
Optimized for industrial and commercial IoT devices, featuring multiple processors, security cores, hardware accelerators and always-on sensing. Applications include consumer IoT, industrial IoT, and wearables.

FA Predictive Maintenance (PdM 4.0)
Designed to support digital and analog sensors used in Industry 4.0 predictive maintenance protocols. Optimized for power-efficient performance in industrial, automotive and AI/ML applications.

FA Always-on Voice Processor 
Optimized for smart devices and mobile handsets, featuring multiple microphone processors and accelerators to enable superior far and near field, close talk and acoustic use cases. Applications include smart speakers, voice assistants, smart appliances and smartphones.

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SiFive and QuickLogic are working with a select number of pioneering potential customers via the FA Early Adopter program. Companies that join the Early Adopter program will have exclusive, early access to the Freedom Aware SoC Templates, the ability to add features and will be able to develop SoC designs that will be ready to launch next year.

“Our Core IP Series have driven greater intelligence at the edge. Now, with the new Freedom Aware family of SoC Templates, we are responding to the need for a complete, economical, and rapid time-to-market SoC solution,” said Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO of SiFive. “Freedom Aware combines QuickLogic’s IP and expertise in ultra-low-power SoC design with SiFive’s leadership in RISC-V processing and design platforms to  produce powerful and agile SoC Templates for the targeted applications. With these resources, and the sophisticated development tools that support them, we are opening vast new markets for innovation by democratizing SoC design.”

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