SiFive Expands DesignShare IP Ecosystem to 20 Partner Companies

Signature Third-Party IP Ecosystem Allows Low-Cost, Rapid Prototyping and Innovative IP Licensing for AI, Edge Computing

SiFive, Inc., the leading provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions, announced that it has expanded its DesignShare ecosystem to 20 portfolio companies and strengthened the third-party IP available to developers of SoCs designed for use in artificial intelligence (AI) and edge inference. As SoC design and IP costs rise for advanced nodes, SiFive continues to deliver innovative business models in order to democratize access to optimized silicon by improving design efficiency for driving differentiated System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions to market.

With the AI silicon market forecast to reach $30 billion by 2023, SiFive is developing AI platforms in leading FinFET nodes for computer vision, edge inferencing and training applications. The deployment of highly optimized silicon at the edge will require the customizability and capabilities afforded by SiFive’s 64-bit RISC-V processors. The cost and effort of acquiring IP for such use cases, however, has traditionally been a high barrier to building new custom SoCs. SiFive’s DesignShare ecosystem addresses these challenges by providing key IP for any silicon engagement as well as selected, tested and integrated IP solutions for targeted applications.

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Following its recent announcements of securing over 100 design wins and the introduction of the industry’s first template SoCs, SiFive’s latest DesignShare IP ecosystem additions include cryptographic security solutions, in-chip monitoring, memory compilers, interconnects and controllers, clock management and SerDes. With existing offerings such as GPUs and accelerators, SiFive’s DesignShare ecosystem offers a complete portfolio of leading and differentiating IP for custom SoC and Template SoC development, optimized for AI, IoT and edge inference.

“AI development is driving semiconductor design in many markets,” said Mohit Gupta, vice president, SoC IP solutions, SiFive. “As we continue to develop complete solutions on advanced FinFET nodes, it is critical to bundle key and differentiating IP from market leaders with our RISC-V core IP and silicon expertise in order to realize the much-needed higher TOPS per milliwatt with low latency performance, while balancing the needs for low power and smaller area footprints. We bring unique capabilities to edge inference use cases and our enhanced DesignShare ecosystem now provides all critical IP for next generation SoCs and accelerators.”

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The need for highly specialized IP is only deepening with increased silicon specialization for specific workloads and the demand for domain-specific architectures. To meet these needs directly for customers, SiFive has added numerous key offerings to its DesignShare ecosystem, including:

• Imagination Technologies for its industry-leading PowerVR GPU and neural network accelerator (NNA), which is needed for computationally intensive graphical and matrix multiplication workloads;
• Savarti for its innovative standard and specialty memory compilers for single and dual port SRAMs and TCAMs that allow for multiple, user-selectable PPA optimization points and comprehensive DFT modes with massive memory libraries for an optimized embedded memory architecture;
• Silicon Creations, which is providing its leading PCIe SerDes as well as its fully integrated and versatile integer and fractional PLLs that allow for advanced clock signal management in very low and ultra-low power conditions with low to ultra-low jitter;
• Openedges, for its bus fabric, OIC — the ORBIT^TM High Speed On-chip Interconnect IP —which delivers high-performance network-on-chip capability and SoC design flexibility based on an automated end-to-end interconnect generation flow. OIC delivers significant synergy in terms of maximum performance, reduced SoC design efforts and easier post-silicon debugging and tuning. Openedges’ Memory Controller, the ORBIT^TM DDR Memory Controller — OMC, delivers exceptional performance including high utilization and very low latency;
• Moortec is providing its process, voltage and temperature (PVT) monitoring subsystem for embedded sensing solutions. In-chip PVT monitoring is now a key consideration for FinFET designs where it is used to increase SoC performance and reliability, especially in AI and accelerator use cases where sensing die temperature, detecting logic speed and monitoring voltage supply levels to a high accuracy can be used intelligently to dynamically optimize performance for lower power or higher data throughput;
• SiFive is enabling security solutions for differentiated RISC-V based SoC’s and are collaborating with DesignShare ecosystem member SecureRF.  SecureRF, a recognized leader in security for small computing platforms, has developed quantum-resistant, public-key security tools for low-resource processors powering IoT devices; SecureRF delivers fast, low-energy and future-proof authentication, identification and data protection solutions for RISC-V based SoCs.

“With the depth and breadth of our third-party IP portfolio coupled with our highly efficient RISC-V Core IP, we can now truly offer customers and partners a ‘your block here’ solution to advanced AI SoCs,” said Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO, SiFive. “With the leading IP for IoT, edge and AI workloads in our DesignShare ecosystem, we extend deep customization and selection of differentiating IP to our customers to power the latest IP, algorithms and accelerators. Our architectural and implementation expertise allows our customers and partners to focus on their unique capabilities while we improve PPA and a provide a fast path to silicon.”

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