Alphawave Semi is making a significant shift away from its traditional IP business by developing a compute chiplet using the ARM Neoverse N3 Compute SubSystem (CSS) for high-performance AI computing. This move follows the company’s acquisition of RISC-V developer SiFive and marks a critical step in its evolution.
The new chiplet-based custom silicon design platform utilises various IP components, including IO extension chiplets, memory chiplets, and compute chiplets. It also incorporates Alphawave Semi’s PCI Express 6.0 and 7.0 connectivity IP and advanced packaging capabilities, ensuring a comprehensive and robust design.
Central to this development is the compute chiplet, which is built around the mid-range Neoverse N3 CPU core cluster and the ARM Coherent Mesh Network (CMN). It will be produced on industry-leading process nodes, promising top-tier performance and efficiency.
Alphawave Semi employs its advanced packaging techniques alongside PCIe Gen 6.0 and 7.0, Universal Chiplet Express (UCIe), 112/224G Ethernet, and HBM subsystems. This strategic integration ensures that the ARM-based compute chiplet offers robust performance and flexibility, coupled with high-speed I/O capabilities suitable for HPC, data centres, AI/ML, and 5G/6G infrastructure applications.
Mohit Gupta, Senior VP & GM of Custom Silicon & IP at Alphawave Semi, emphasises the significance of this development: “Our ARM-based compute chiplet is a critical component in Alphawave Semi’s custom silicon platform. It demonstrates our IP, SoC, and packaging capabilities and our successful strategic partnership with Arm. By integrating the Arm Neoverse CSS platform with Alphawave Semi’s advanced and proven IP, we drive innovation across the chiplet ecosystem and simplify the development of critical custom silicon for AI, HPC, and other demanding digital infrastructure applications.”
Alphawave Semi joined the ARM Total Design programme last year. Eddie Ramirez, vice president of go-to-market for the Infrastructure Line of Business at ARM, highlights the importance of this collaboration: “ARM Total Design is fostering a rapidly growing ecosystem around custom silicon and enabling chiplet innovations to meet increasingly complex computing requirements. Alphawave Semi’s new advanced compute chiplet exemplifies how industry-leading companies leverage the performance optimisation and power efficiency benefits of Neoverse CSS to accelerate time to market and power next-generation AI and HPC workloads.”
Alphawave IP Group plc (LON:AWE) is a semiconductor IP company focused on providing DSP based, multi-standard connectivity Silicon IP solutions targeting both data processing in the Datacenter and data generation by IoT end devices.
