Tessenderlo, Belgium and San Jose, CA, United States – June 13, 2019
X-FAB Silicon Foundries, the leading analog/mixed-signal and
specialty foundry, together with crowd-sourcing IC platform partner
Efabless Corporation, today announced the successful first-silicon
availability of the Efabless RISC-V System on Chip (SoC) reference
design. This open-source semiconductor project went from design start to
tape-out in less than three months using the Efabless design flow based
on open-source tools. The mixed-signal SoC, called Raven, is based on
the community developed ultra-low power PicoRV32 RISC-V core. Efabless
has successfully bench-tested the Raven at 100MHz, and based on
simulations the design should be able to operate at up to 150MHz.
Raven is unique in that the open-source top-level design utilizes
X-FAB proprietary analog IP and is created with an open-source design
flow. This hybrid open-source design brings the power of open innovation
and at the same time protecting significant investment in proprietary
IP.
Efabless and X-FAB chose to manufacture the Raven on X-FAB’s
high-reliability XH018 process. This is a flexible 180nm 6-metal process
with a wide variety of options including a low power option, on-chip
isolation for high voltages, and high-temperature flash memory. X-FAB’s
XH018 process meets automotive quality requirements and is popular in a
wide range of automotive, industrial and medical applications.
The semiconductor design is fully functional and Efabless is now
engaged with its initial customers on design of derivative offerings. To
the Efabless community Raven is available from the Efabless marketplace
as a reference design without license fee consequentially advancing the
Efabless open innovation model of community design.
“The successful partnership with Efabless demonstrates X-FAB’s
continued commitment to open-source semiconductor development”, said
Ulrich Bretthauer, Product Marketing Manager at X-FAB. “Nearly 75% of
Raven’s die area is covered by X-FAB standard library blocks and macros.
Using these proven IP blocks increased the reliability of the Raven
while minimizing first-silicon risk.”
According to Mohamed Kassem, Efabless co-founder and CTO, “This
project would not have been possible without the support of X-FAB. They
have been an early adopter of the Efabless open-innovation model and
this project is the logical extension of our collaboration.”
For companies that want to learn how to get started with open-source
IP semiconductor design, X-FAB provides a series of free webinars
including “Handling of Complex & Diverse IC Designs Made Easier”,
“Design Robustness”, and “IC Lifetime Calculation Made Easy”. Design
kits and PDKs for open source IP designs are available. Contact X-FAB
for more information.
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About Efabless Corporation
Efabless.com is the world’s first crowd-sourcing platform for
semiconductors. Efabless’ customers connect with a community of design
firms and professionals and receive formal quotes for custom mixed
signal IC and IP solutions. Efabless then provides its IC design
community with a cloud-based platform offering everything needed to
execute the designs. This includes a design flow based on open source
tools; a marketplace featuring IP and full reference designs; access to
foundry processes and MPW services to get to prototypes. The entire
offering is designed to eliminate the cost and administrative barriers
that have inhibited IC design in general and custom IC design in
particular.
For more information, contact:
Jeff DiCorpo
SVP Business Development
(408) 896-2078
jeffdi@efabless.com
About X-FAB
X-FAB is the leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundry group
manufacturing silicon wafers for automotive, industrial, consumer,
medical and other applications. Its customers worldwide benefit from the
highest quality standards, manufacturing excellence and innovative
solutions by using X-FAB’s modular CMOS and SOI processes in geometries
ranging from 1.0 to 0.13 µm, and its special SiC and MEMS long-lifetime
processes. X-FAB’s analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal
ICs), sensors and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are
manufactured at six production facilities in Germany, France, Malaysia
and the U.S. X-FAB employs about 4,000 people worldwide. For more
information, please visit www.xfab.com
X-FAB Press Contact
Thomas Hartung
VP Sales & Corporate Marketing
X-FAB Silicon Foundries
+49-361-427-6160
thomas.hartung@xfab.com
