Efinix and SMIC deliver the first Quantum-Accelerated chip

Date: 12/12/2017
Efinix has announced receival of silicon product samples for its first Quantum-accelerated programmable product platform from SMIC . Built on SMIC’s 40nm process, Efinix did this product development using SMIC’s Physical Design Kit (PDK) to system validation of the samples in less than six months.

The technology used by Efinix is different from traditional FPGA, Efinix explains in its website "The basic building block of the Quantum technology is the eXchangeable Logic and Routing (XLR) cell. An XLR cell can function as either a LUT-based logic cell or a routing switch encoded with a scalable, flexible routing structure. This innovation improves the active area utilization by 4X compared to traditional FPGAs, resulting in up to 4X area efficiency and a 2X power advantage" Another advantage according to Efinity is " The competitive Quantum technology only requires 7 metal layers, a significant reduction compared to traditional FPGAs that have 10 to 14 layers "

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Source: Efinix Inc

“This is the first time Efinix has worked with SMIC, and I am impressed by the strong support they provided. SMIC’s business and technical engagement with us created a strong foundation for our development success,” said Sammy Cheung, co-founder, CEO, and president of Efinix. “Now we can focus on our 2018 production milestones and swiftly deploy our first Quantum-accelerated product line to serve high-volume markets worldwide.”

Efinix claims its Quantum programmable technology delivers a 4X Power-Performance-Area advantage over traditional programmable technologies. This disruptive advantage enables Efinix’s silicon products to compete in high-growth markets such as custom logic, deep learning, and compute acceleration.

“SMIC’s 40nm Low Leakage platform has already been in mass production for over five years. It has more than 220 products. We are excited to be working with Efinix to develop the Quantum programmable technology on our advanced and reliable platform,” said Sunny Hui, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing at SMIC. “FPGA programmable products are technically challenging to develop, but Efinix’s Quantum technology made it straightforward. We look forward to working with Efinix to deliver its first product line to production and to support joint developments in the near future.”

“This is an unprecedented level of efficiency in programmable product development. It sets the development time standard for the industry,” said Bill Hata, former senior vice president of Worldwide Operations and Engineering at Altera Corporation (now part of Intel). Hata has more than 30 years of semiconductor industry experience and serves on Efinix’s Advisory Board. “This capability is made possible by the silicon process agnostic nature of the Quantum architecture. Unlike leading FPGAs, this technology does not require silicon process customization to boost performance and logic element (LE) density.”

Efinix said it is currently working with a few enabling customers. Details of the first phase of Quantum- accelerated product line will be released in the first quarter of 2018.

For more information, visit http://www.efinixinc.com.

Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
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