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

Akeana, the corporate seeking to alternate semiconductor design, has raised over $100 million in investment up to now 3 years to design RISC-V processors. Now it’s launching merchandise.

Nowadays’s release marks the formal availability of the corporate’s product line of highbrow assets answers which are uniquely customizable for any workload or software.

Shaped by way of the similar group that designed Marvell’s ThunderX2 server chips, Akeana provides extremely customizable IP answers for all semiconductor markets, starting from microcontrollers to cell to automobile and cloud computing.

Akeana needs to transport 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 stated it’s deeply engaged with many tier one shoppers on AI compute, and the corporate has answers which are being evaluated. Akeana will come with AI sped up 1000-series (In-Order) processors, that improve AI datatypes, processing and information bandwidth necessities.

The brand new merchandise

Akeana launched 3 processor strains and SoC IP, in tandem with the formal release of the corporate, all
able for buyer supply, together with:

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

Akeana 1000 Sequence: a processor line that comes with 64-bit RISC-V cores and an MMU to improve wealthy running techniques, whilst keeping up low energy and requiring low die house. Those processors optionally improve multi-threading, vector extension, hypervisor extension and different extensions which are a part of fresh and upcoming RISC-V profiles, in addition to non-compulsory AI computation extensions.

Akeana 5000 Sequence: a line of maximum efficiency processors representing {industry} efficiency management, outperforming established competition and the RISC-V ecosystem. This line supplies final differentiation with 64-bit RISC-V cores optimized for tough programs in next-gen units, laptops, knowledge facilities, and cloud infrastructure. Those processors fit with the Akeana 1000 Sequence at a miles upper unmarried thread efficiency.

Processor Device IP: a choice of IP blocks wanted for advent of processor SoCs, together with a coherent cluster cache block, I/O MMU, and Interrupt Controller. Akeana additionally permits the implementation of complicated options for patrons with complicated IP answers for massive coherent mesh multi-core techniques.

All of the processors, techniques, and Interconnect IPs are to be had now, so shoppers can get started running these days with Akeana highbrow assets.

Huge improve

The corporate has over $100 million in capital, with improve 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 more than a few knowledge varieties, it can be connected to the coherent cluster cache block very similar to a core for optimum knowledge sharing.

“Our group has a confirmed monitor file of designing world-class server chips, and we are actually making use of that
experience to the wider semiconductor marketplace as we officially move to marketplace,” stated Rabin Sugumar, Akeana CEO, in a remark. “With our wealthy portfolio of customizable cores and particular safety, debug, RAS, and telemetry options, we offer our shoppers with exceptional efficiency, observability, and
reliability. We consider our merchandise will revolutionize the {industry}.”

“The renaissance of silicon, sweeping thru our {industry}, is riding the upward push of architectural
inventions like RISC-V,” stated Navin Chaddha, managing spouse at Mayfield, in a remark. “Akeana has the whole thing had to transform a breakout corporate – a world-class group of founders and buyers, essentially the most complete IP, an even licensing type, and a compelling worth proposition for helping chipmakers in designing workload-optimized silicon answers. I stay up for partnering with Rabin and the group within the subsequent section in their adventure.”

“The migration to RISC-V is in complete flight,” stated Mamoon Hamid, spouse at Kleiner Perkins, in a remark. “Nearly all of most sensible semiconductor companies are transitioning to RISC-V, with many opting for Akeana because of its highest at school efficiency.”

Akeana’s group of seasoned execs, coupled with its dedication to handing over game-changing answers, for knowledge and AI-intensive use circumstances, makes it a brand new driver within the {industry} –offering shoppers with state-of-the-art functions to satisfy their distinctive semiconductor design wishes. Akeana is a proud member of the RISC-V board of administrators and could also be taking part within the RISE challenge to boost up
the provision of device for RISC-V.

Akeana is a driver of alternate in semiconductor IP innovation and function, on a undertaking to
ship world-class RISC-V-based compute, interconnect, and accelerator IP answers.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, this venture-funded startup is devoted to empowering shoppers with extremely configurable era and equitable licensing choices, transferring past the restrictions of these days’s legacy distributors and architectures.

With an skilled group of engineers, Akeana is at the vanguard of easy-to-optimize semiconductor IP. Its rising patent portfolio displays a dedication to satisfy the {industry}’s ever-evolving wishes and demanding situations.

Akeana has greater than 150 staff.

To dump the computation-intensive matrix operation, Akeana has advanced an ultra-high efficiency according to watt matrix accelerator with optimized processor gadget knowledge motion. Akeana’s AI answers will likely be introduced at a later date.

So far as festival is going, Akeana stated this can be a natural IP corporate, processors and processor gadget IP, so it competes in opposition to different processor and processor gadget IP firms. Obviously, ARM is a first-rate competitor as it’s the incumbent on this area, however different competition come with RISC-V IP firms that supply efficiency processors equivalent to SiFive, MIPS, and Andes. Some other set of businesses–Tenstorrent, Ventana, and Rivos– have a method round SoC and chiplets, with IP as a possible trade as smartly.

The Akeana worth proposition over competition is to ship the very best efficiency processors and the broadest product portfolio. Its chips scale to huge multi-core techniques and Akeana makes a speciality of customization. To the shoppers, this implies the corporate provides the entire processor IP that they are going to want, enabling them to reach very best efficiency, in minimum time to marketplace.