SiFive has launched a self-contained and autonomous business unit to build silicon with Arm, RISC-V and other instruction set architectures (ISAs) for heterogeneous mixed-ISA designs.

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It is to be called OpenFive and is described as “ISA-neutral and Risc-V agnostic,” by SiFive: “Put simply, SiFive will deepen its focus on Risc-V IP, while OpenFive expands the opportunity for domain-specific silicon.”

OpenFive will be led by Shafy Eltoukhy as senior v-p and general manager.

“The world is moving towards domain-specific architectures to solve the needs of power, performance, and cost”, said Eltoukhy. “Working collaboratively with our partners and customers, OpenFive innovates with segment-specific silicon solutions based on optimised processor and SoC IP.”

Foundry processes nodes down to 5nm wil be used, as well as 2.5D packaging technology.

It is aiming at products for artificial intelligence, edge computing, high-performance computing and networking – with a portfolio that includes Interlaken connectivity fabric, 400/800G Ethernet, high-bandwidth memory (HBM2/E), USB subsystem IP, and die-to-die interconnect for heterogeneous chiplet-style products.
 
“OpenFive will accelerate the adoption of domain-specific silicon designs for workload-focused performance”, said Dr. Naveed Sherwani, Chairman, President, and CEO of SiFive. “The adoption of RISC-V in heterogenous ISA designs will benefit the performance and scalability of products, and encourage more technology companies to move to open, free ISAs for their computing needs.”