Efinix and SMIC deliver the first Quantum-Accelerated chip

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 " immbg content_logic-routing-cell.png 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 ...