SiFive, a RISC-V processor design firm, recently introduced two innovative chip designs that aim to provide a high-performance computing solution for various industries. The SiFive Performance P870 and SiFive Intelligence X390 chips were unveiled at a press event in Santa Clara, California. These chips are based on the open RISC-V architecture and offer low power consumption, compute density, and vector compute capability.
Bringing Performance Boost to Data-Intensive Computing Applications
The SiFive Performance P870 and SiFive Intelligence X390 are designed to significantly boost the performance of data-intensive computing applications in consumer electronics, automotive technology, and infrastructure. SiFive executives emphasized the company’s commitment to driving high-performance RISC-V innovation and bridging the gap with other instruction set architectures.
“The flexibility of SiFive’s RISC-V solutions allows companies to address the unique computing requirements of these segments and capitalize on the momentum around generative AI, where we have seen double-digit design wins, and for other cutting-edge applications.” – Patrick Little, SiFive CEO
The SiFive Performance P870 is tailored for high-performance consumer applications and can be used alongside a vector processor in data centers. It sets a new standard for RISC-V performance, offering instruction set architecture availability, throughput, parallelism, and memory bandwidth. The P870 features a six-wide out-of-order core and a shared cluster cache that enables up to a 32-core cluster. It delivers a 50% peak single-thread performance upgrade compared to previous SiFive Performance processors.
The SiFive Intelligence X390 builds upon the success of its predecessor, the SiFive Intelligence X280, by combining AI and machine learning applications with hardware accelerators for mobile, infrastructure, and automotive use. The X390 offers a four-fold improvement in vector computation, providing doubled vector length, dual vector ALUs, and quadruple the amount of sustained data bandwidth. The SiFive Vector Coprocessor Interface eXtension (VCIX) allows companies to add their own vector instructions and acceleration hardware, offering unprecedented flexibility and performance enhancement.
Providing an Agile and Programmable Solution for Generative AI
SiFive’s combined solution of the P870 and X390, along with a high-performance NPU cluster, offers product designers an agile and programmable platform for generative AI applications. This solution delivers superior compute density, low power consumption, and exceptional flexibility to handle complex workloads.
SiFive has received strong interest from customers regarding these combined chip solutions, with several achieving success in silicon development and commercialization using SiFive products. The company continues to collaborate with partners across the ecosystem to ensure that the software, security, and flexibility benefits of the open standard RISC-V ecosystem are readily available for SiFive processors, enabling companies to bring their SiFive-powered products to market.
“SiFive is committed to transforming the future of computing by harnessing the limitless potential of RISC-V for high-performance and data-intensive applications.” – Patrick Little, SiFive CEO
SiFive, one of the pioneers of RISC-V, has raised significant funding and boasts over 500 employees across multiple locations. The company has secured 350 design wins, with notable customers including Intel, Amazon, Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, and NASA.
SiFive’s success lies in its ability to cater to a wide range of computing needs, from embedded systems to high-performance cores. The company’s chips offer better power efficiency and compute density compared to its competitor, Arm. While it may take some time to fully establish itself as a leading force, SiFive is confident in the growing popularity of the RISC-V software ecosystem and the demand for agile hardware in AI and general-purpose computing.
SiFive aims to provide complete solutions around its core chips, offering a broad portfolio that eliminates the need to duct-tape together different systems. As the demand for RISC-V increases, SiFive is well-positioned to meet the computing requirements of new categories of customers.
