With $100M raised, Akeana unveils new RISC-V chip designs

Akeana, the corporate attempting to alter semiconductor design, has raised over $100 million in funding prior to now three years to design RISC-V processors. Now it’s launching merchandise.

At present’s launch marks the formal availability of the corporate’s product line of mental property options which might be uniquely customizable for any workload or utility.

Fashioned by the identical crew that designed Marvell’s ThunderX2 server chips, Akeana affords extremely customizable IP options for all semiconductor markets, starting from microcontrollers to cellular to automotive and cloud computing.

Akeana needs to maneuver the {industry} past the established order of legacy distributors and architectures, like Arm, with equitable licensing choices and processors that fill and exceed present efficiency gaps.

As for AI involvement, Akeana mentioned it’s deeply engaged with many tier one clients on AI compute, and the corporate has options which might be being evaluated. Akeana will embrace AI accelerated 1000-series (In-Order) processors, that assist AI datatypes, processing and knowledge bandwidth necessities.

The brand new merchandise

Akeana launched three processor traces and SoC IP, in tandem with the formal launch of the corporate, all
prepared for buyer supply, together with:

Akeana 100 Collection: a line of extremely configurable processors with 32-bit RISC-V cores that helps functions from embedded microcontrollers to edge gateways, to private computing gadgets. Akeana 100 is the bottom design in Akeana’s processor line, scaling from one to dozens of cores.

Akeana 1000 Collection: a processor line that features 64-bit RISC-V cores and an MMU to assist wealthy working methods, whereas sustaining low energy and requiring low die space. These processors optionally assist multi-threading, vector extension, hypervisor extension and different extensions which might be a part of current and upcoming RISC-V profiles, in addition to elective AI computation extensions.

Akeana 5000 Collection: a line of utmost efficiency processors representing {industry} efficiency management, outperforming established opponents and the RISC-V ecosystem. This line offers final differentiation with 64-bit RISC-V cores optimized for demanding functions in next-gen gadgets, laptops, knowledge facilities, and cloud infrastructure. These processors are suitable with the Akeana 1000 Collection at a a lot increased single thread efficiency.

Processor System IP: a set of IP blocks wanted for creation of processor SoCs, together with a coherent cluster cache block, I/O MMU, and Interrupt Controller. Akeana additionally permits the implementation of superior options for patrons with superior IP options for giant coherent mesh multi-core methods.

All of the processors, methods, and Interconnect IPs can be found now, so clients can begin working as we speak with Akeana mental property.

Broad assist

The corporate has over $100 million in capital, with assist from A-list buyers together with Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, and Constancy.

AI Matrix computation engine: designed to dump Matrix Multiply operations for AI acceleration. Configurable in measurement and supporting varied knowledge varieties, it could be connected to the coherent cluster cache block just like a core for optimum knowledge sharing.

“Our team has a proven track record of designing world-class server chips, and we are now applying that
expertise to the broader semiconductor market as we formally go to market,” mentioned Rabin Sugumar, Akeana CEO, in a press release. “With our rich portfolio of customizable cores and special security, debug, RAS, and telemetry features, we provide our customers with unparalleled performance, observability, and
reliability. We believe our products will revolutionize the industry.”

“The renaissance of silicon, sweeping through our industry, is driving the rise of architectural
innovations like RISC-V,” mentioned Navin Chaddha, managing associate at Mayfield, in a press release. “Akeana has everything needed to become a breakout company – a world-class team of founders and investors, the most comprehensive IP, a fair licensing model, and a compelling value proposition for aiding chipmakers in designing workload-optimized silicon solutions. I look forward to partnering with Rabin and the team in the next phase of their journey.”

“The migration to RISC-V is in full flight,” mentioned Mamoon Hamid, associate at Kleiner Perkins, in a press release. “The majority of top semiconductor firms are transitioning to RISC-V, with many choosing Akeana due to its best in class performance.”

Akeana’s crew of seasoned professionals, coupled with its dedication to delivering game-changing options, for knowledge and AI-intensive use instances, makes it a brand new driving power within the {industry} –offering clients with cutting-edge capabilities to satisfy their distinctive semiconductor design wants. Akeana is a proud member of the RISC-V board of administrators and can be taking part within the RISE challenge to speed up
the supply of software program for RISC-V.

Akeana is a driving power of change in semiconductor IP innovation and efficiency, on a mission to
ship world-class RISC-V-based compute, interconnect, and accelerator IP options.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, this venture-funded startup is devoted to empowering clients with extremely configurable expertise and equitable licensing choices, transferring past the restrictions of as we speak’s legacy distributors and architectures.

With an skilled crew of engineers, Akeana is on the forefront of easy-to-optimize semiconductor IP. Its rising patent portfolio displays a dedication to satisfy the {industry}’s ever-evolving wants and challenges.

Akeana has greater than 150 staff.

To dump the computation-intensive matrix operation, Akeana has developed an ultra-high efficiency per watt matrix accelerator with optimized processor system knowledge motion. Akeana’s AI options will probably be introduced at a later date.

So far as competitors goes, Akeana mentioned it’s a pure IP firm, processors and processor system IP, so it competes towards different processor and processor system IP firms. Clearly, ARM is a primary competitor as it’s the incumbent on this house, however different opponents embrace RISC-V IP firms that supply efficiency processors resembling SiFive, MIPS, and Andes. One other set of firms–Tenstorrent, Ventana, and Rivos– have a technique round SoC and chiplets, with IP as a possible enterprise as properly.

The Akeana worth proposition over opponents is to ship the very best efficiency processors and the broadest product portfolio. Its chips scale to very giant multi-core methods and Akeana focuses on customization. To the shoppers, this implies the corporate affords all of the processor IP that they are going to want, enabling them to realize highest efficiency, in minimal time to market.