Alphawave Semi (LSE: AWE), a global leader in high-speed connectivity and compute silicon, proudly announces the successful tape-out of the industry’s first off-the-shelf multi-protocol I/O connectivity chiplet utilizing TSMC’s 7nm process. This groundbreaking chiplet consolidates Alphawave Semi’s adaptable connectivity IP, custom silicon, and advanced packaging capabilities to deliver a comprehensive standards-compliant IP portfolio, supporting Ethernet, PCIe®, CXL®, and UCIe™ (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express) Revision 1.1.
In the realm of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI), chiplets are increasingly crucial, offering superior connectivity with higher bandwidth and lower power consumption compared to traditional technologies, all while minimizing the need for extensive customization. By opting for off-the-shelf chiplets, customers can enhance performance and efficiency, reduce development time and costs, and achieve greater flexibility within their existing hardware ecosystems.
Alphawave Semi’s new chiplet delivers a total bandwidth of up to 1.6 Tbps, enabling up to 16 lanes of multi-standard PHY that supports silicon-proven PCIe 6.0, CXL 3.x, and 800G Ethernet in various mixed operating modes. This successful tape-out sets the stage for a robust, open chiplet ecosystem that enhances connectivity for high-performance AI systems by employing UCIe as a die-to-die connectivity subsystem. Recently, Alphawave Semi showcased an industry-first live demo of its 24 Gbps UCIe silicon platform at the Chiplet Summit 2024 in Santa Clara, CA.
Mohit Gupta, SVP and GM of Custom Silicon and IP at Alphawave Semi, commented, “The successful tape-out of our off-the-shelf, multi-protocol I/O connectivity chiplet highlights our expertise in leveraging the TSMC 3DFabric™ ecosystem to integrate advanced interfaces. This marks a significant milestone in Alphawave Semi’s mission to provide ultra-high-performance connectivity essential for the digital infrastructure supporting global data communications. Our top hyperscaler and datacenter customers can now effortlessly combine high-performance custom SoCs with our I/O connectivity or memory expansion chiplets, achieving unprecedented flexibility and scalability in their AI-enabled systems.”
Percy Chang, Director of Emerging Business Development at TSMC, added, “The tape-out of Alphawave Semi’s multi-protocol I/O connectivity chiplet on our 7nm process underscores TSMC’s vital role in advancing semiconductor platforms for high-performance, high-throughput applications. We remain committed to collaborating with VCA partners like Alphawave Semi to cultivate a robust and open chiplet ecosystem, delivering the high-bandwidth connectivity and compute silicon essential for HPC and AI applications.”
About Alphawave Semi
Alphawave Semi is a global leader in high-speed connectivity and compute silicon for the world’s technology infrastructure. Faced with the exponential growth of data, Alphawave Semi’s technology services a critical need: enabling data to travel faster, more reliably, and with higher performance at lower power. We are a vertically integrated semiconductor company, and our IP, custom silicon, and connectivity products are deployed by global tier-one customers in data centers, compute, networking, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, and storage. Founded in 2017 by an expert technical team with a proven track record in licensing semiconductor IP, our mission is to accelerate the critical data infrastructure at the heart of our digital world.