Andes Technology forms a Multinational Alliance with ASIC Design Service Companies to Provide RISC-V Total Solutions

HSINCHU, TAIWAN, Aug. 08, 2018 -- Andes Technology Corporation (TWSE: 6533), the leading supplier of high performance, low-power and small embedded CPU cores, has created a RISC-V core licensing project and has signed joint promotion agreements to form a multinational design service alliance with several top ASIC/SoC design service companies. The alliance is expected to continue expanding eventually reaching 20 or more companies globally in the following several months. Now the alliance in alphabetical order includes ASIC Land in Korea, SiEn (Qingdao) Semiconductor in China, and XtremeEDA in USA and Canada. These companies will use the RISC-V ISA (instruction set architecture) based processor cores authorized by Andes to provide design service with RISC-V total solutions to end customers.

RISC-V, an open instruction set architecture (ISA) originally developed by UC Berkeley, is compact, modular, and extensible. Because of its flexibility and open source architecture, the RISC-V ecosystem continues to rapidly expand. With the RISC-V Foundation formation, a large and growing number of leading system and chip design　companies have joined the RISC-V team and RISC-V technology continues to evolve. Applications including ADAS, AI, IoT, Networking, Storage and other emerging technology along with an ecosystem with unlimited potential for future growth is driving RISC-V towards an ever expanding future.

Andes Technology has more than ten years of professional experience in designing high-performance/low-power, 32/64-bit processor cores. Shipment of AndesCore™ embedded in customer SoCs has reached 2.5 billion. As a founding member of the RISC-V Foundation, Andes Technology is dedicated to bringing its expertise in developing CPU processor cores to the enhancement of the RISC-V ISA. For example, Andes develops its fifth generation ISA - AndeStar™ V5 family which uses RISC-V as a subset, plus Andes-specific enhancement based on the past experience in the CPU field. At the recent RISC-V Workshop in Milpitas, Andes proposed a P-extension (Packed SIMD—single-instruction, multiple-data) to the RISC-V ISA based on the DSP ISA used in Andes’ successful D10 and D15 processors. In addition, Andes is a major contributor to the RISC-V open source software, ranging from compilers, libraries, debuggers, to the Linux kernel. With its technical expertise and innovation, Andes is the leader to empower the RISC-V architecture.

The highly-configurable AndesCore™ 32-bit N25 and 64-bit NX25 cores have gained widespread attention since their released in December Q4 2017 thanks to their competitive performance, power, area, and RISC-V compliance based on AndeStar™ V5 ISA. This sophisticated microarchitecture design has benefited greatly from the expertise accumulated from the broad product line of AndesCore™ embedded in more than 2.5 billion SoCs. Besides its industry recognized IP quality, Andes also offers SoC platforms for N25 and NX25. These platforms contain the CPU core pre-integrated with the bus matrix and rich peripheral IP enabling designers to jump start their SoC designs and ease migration and integration. To ensure the N25 and NX25 cores achieve their fullest performance, Andes also provides its highly-optimized compiler and feature-rich IDE (integrated developer environment) to help customers achieve competitive advantage for their end products in the shortest time. Andes also unveils its plan to release four new RISC-V compliant CPU cores in 2018 Q3 supporting 32 bit/64bit, floating point processing and Linux: N25F, A25, NX25F and AX25.

"We provide the finest IC design service to our customers, including the best CPU IP," said Mr. Chang Eun Jang, CTO of ASIC Land " Based on the RISC-V architecture, Andes two high-performance 1-GHz AndesCore™ processor IP, the 32-bit N25 and the 64-bit NX25, both deliver over 2.8 DMIPS/MHz and over 3.4 CoreMark/MHz, and gate count as small as 30K and 50K respectively, when using TSMC 28nm HPC process. The N25 and NX25 are ideal for a broad range of end customers’ applications. We are happy to join the alliance with Andes. It means we can provide the ultimate RISC-V solutions for our customers. "

"SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd. is China’s first semiconductor company based on a Commune IDM (CIDM) model. Our very first task is to have strategic alliances with world-leading vendors." said of SiEn Chairman Dr. Richard Chang, "Most of SiEn’s technology and management teams have the valuable experience in working with the first-class semiconductor companies of the world. We understand that building a complete IC industry chain is essential to ensure that we can meet customers’ needs and deliver design quickly. With the technical advantage Andes RISC-V high-performance/low-power processors provide and our design expertise, it will definitely create a win-win situation for our customers."

"Andes represents a great supplement to our own sales and marketing effort,” said Chris Raeuber, XtremeEDA VP of Engineering, . "As the major RISC-V CPU core supplier in Asia, Andes has great market insight into the new designs going on in that region and they are bringing that knowledge to the U.S. They are identifying start-ups with unique new SoCs targeting emerging markets that need front-end and verification engineering resources, such as what we offer. Together, we provide our mutual customers a means of rapidly getting their designs into silicon."

The AndesCore™ based on RISC-V ISA has been adopted by customers in Taiwan, China and the US. Andes Technology will continue to expand its alliance with high-quality design service providers to provide end customers with new momentum to develop faster and shorten time-to-market.

About ASIC Land

Incorporated in April 2016 in Suwon, Korea, Asic Land Co., Ltd. is a leading ASIC/SoC design service provider. The company provides optimized ASIC/SoC design services, from RTL level design to implementation service that combine optimal process technology and IP to meet customers’ specifications. Asic Land’s organization provides turnkey services from ASIC/SoC service to foundry, package, and testing vendors, and SoC platform board development. The company has strong long-term partnerships with foundry companies in Korea, Taiwan, and China to focus on developing and supplying custom semiconductors (ASICs) that supply semiconductor products that meet customer needs. Asic Land has provided design services and mass production in applications that include mobile devices, digital TV, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and networks, and IoT products. Asic Land will focus on high end service to continuously meet customer expectation and satisfaction. For more information about Asic Land, please visit www.asicland.com

About SiEn (Qingdao) Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd

SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd. is China’s first semiconductor company based on a Commune IDM (CIDM) model, with a total investment of about 15 billion RMB (US$2.26B). Its business covers the development of semiconductor integrated circuit chips, design services, technical services, and test packages; sales of semiconductor materials and equipment. The teams have extensive experience from various world-class semiconductor companies and specializes in technology development, industrial management, and investment operations in the semiconductor integrated circuit industry. SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd. will be the first company to introduce the CIDM model in China. With world-class manufacturing capabilities, it has attracted a host of advanced semiconductor application companies from local and abroad to participate in the exciting venture, including smart home appliances, communications, as well as automotive electronics. For more information, please visit http://sienidm.com.cn/

About XtremeEDA

XtremeEDA is an ASIC development team composed of engineers averaging over 20 years of semiconductor design and verification expertise each. Our work spans sectors including processors, wireless, automotive, avionics, medical, consumer electronics, government, and more. XtremeEDA’s business approach emphasizes enduring and transformational relationships to employ creative solutions that enable extraordinary results for all stakeholders. XtremeEDA is a member of both the RISC-V Foundation and the Global Semiconductor Alliance. For more information, please visit https://www.xtreme-eda.com.

About Andes Technology

Andes Technology Corporation was founded in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan in 2005 to develop innovative high-performance/low-power 32/64-bit processor cores and associated development environment to serve worldwide rapidly growing embedded system applications.

The company delivers the best super low power CPU cores, including the rising star RISC-V series with integrated development environment and associated software and hardware solutions for efficient SoC design. Up to the end of 2017, the cumulative amount of SoCs containing Andes’ CPU IP reaches 2.5 billion.

To meet the demanding requirements of today's electronic devices, Andes Technology delivers configurable software/hardware IP and scalable platforms to respond to customers' needs for quality products and faster time-to-market. Andes Technology's comprehensive CPU includes entry-level, mid-range, high-end, extensible and security families to address the full range of embedded electronics products, especially for connected, smart and green applications. From 2017, Andes expands its product line and provides a total solution of RISC-V, the RISC-V series as V5 families processors cores include N25/NX25 and upcoming N25F/NX25F and A25/AX25.
For more information about Andes Technology, please visit http://www.andestech.com/