RaaS, a collaborative initiative, adopted Menta's eFPGA technology for RaaS Edge Computing platform

Menta, the proven eFPGA pioneer and Winner of the Best in Show 2022 by Embedded Computing Design for its eFPGA Soft IP technology at Embedded World Germany, has delivered its best technology to the Research Association for Advanced Systems (RaaS).

Sophia Antipolis, France -- September 18, 2024 – Menta, a pioneer of eFPGAs and a leading company in semiconductor design, announced the signing of and delivery of IPs to its newest client, the Research Association for Advanced Systems (RaaS) – a collaborative innovation partnership established upon the authorization of the competent minister in Japan.

RaaS’s mission is to provide access as a service to the most advanced semiconductor technology (Research as a Service). RaaS has retained Menta to provide embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IPs. Menta has demonstrated a variety of state-of-the-art solutions designed to revolutionize the eFPGA market.

“When adopting an eFPGA as an SoC IP, the sign-off tests pose a major challenge. Menta's eFPGA IP, delivered as a soft-IP using only third-party standard cells, offers the advantage of a standard IC design flow and produces highly reliable, high-quality chips,” said Mototsugu Hamada, Senior Fellow of RaaS. “RaaS is aiming at a data-centric edge computing platform with the best performance while keeping flexibility. The ability of Menta’s eFPGA IPs to integrate custom blocks to implement dedicated circuits such as unique accelerators and 3D-stacked SRAM interface is a true game changer. The highest performances are expected.”

Menta's uniqueness comes from its capacity for innovation, offering unrivalled features to meet the evolving requirements of modern semiconductor design. Among its standout features, Menta's eFPGA IP supplied to RaaS boasts a unique combination of 4 eFPGA cores, providing an unprecedented level of flexibility and scalability for SoC integration. Moreover, Menta's eFPGA architecture directly integrates 2 client acceleration blocks within the eFPGA matrix, enabling designers to tailor their circuits with precision and efficiency. Notably, the technology addresses the crucial aspect of memory management by supporting two distinct memory types, including advanced 3D-stacked memory configurations, directly embedded in the eFPGA IP and inferred by Origami Programmer software. This comprehensive approach to memory optimization ensures optimal performance and resource utilization, making Menta's eFPGA solution a transformative force in the semiconductor landscape.

Menta’s eFPGA IP technology is revolutionizing the eFPGA market, offering SoCs, ASICs and sensors designers the means to update their chips over time and in the field for applications such as security/cryptography, artificial intelligence, motor control and telecommunication. Menta products are used worldwide by companies serving defense, space, Internet of things, industrial, 5G and automotive markets. Menta eFPGA IP will be used by its customers for AI applications – thanks for the unmatched efficiency introduced by the usage of customer blocks (eCBs) as well as the possibility to integrate any kind of memory right inside Menta eFPGA IP.

“Firstly, I would like to emphasize the extraordinary collaboration between the RaaS teams and ours, which has led us to this result”, said Vincent Markus, Menta, president and chief executive officer. “Secondly, Menta demonstrates its capability to deliver complex eFPGA Soft IPs by integrating two types of customer arithmetic blocks and two types of inferred memories in large quantities. The high degree of automation in our software tools has enabled RaaS to achieve this result with minimal resources—a crucial factor today given the difficulty in finding resources in digital electronics. None of our current competitors are able to deliver such an IP”.

Menta eFPGAs IPs are programmable logic arrays integrated by Menta’s customers inside their “Systems on Chip” (SoC). It provides the ability for any SoC to be hardware reconfigured postproduction, in the field. Once the eFPGA IP is integrated into SoCs, Menta Origami Programmer software is used to output the eFPGA configuration file (bitstream). For AI applications such as the one devised by RaaS, the eFPGA IP offers a design insurance by allowing updating the AI algorithms during the whole lifetime of the chip in a low power, high performance architecture.

Menta is the only player in the semiconductor industry to offer the revolutionary “soft IP” eFPGA technology, hence available at any foundry, on any technology node. Menta delivers standard cell based, embedded FPGA IPs in RTL and GDS2 format, for SoC, ASIC or ASSP designs. This exclusive technology lets effortlessly update a silicon post-production, whether to fix a bug, implement customer-specific features, adapt to evolving standards, or enhance security. Menta IPs are delivered with standard EDA tools, and support process technologies and nodes from any vendor (from 350nm all the way down to 2nm and below).

RaaS is getting ready for the future by researching technology for enhancing edge computing. Thanks to Menta’s technology, they are now able to research implementing its platform in the 7nm node. This is a promising step to grant access to the most advanced semiconductor technology to the greatest number of users.

About the Research Association for Advanced Systems (RaaS)

The mission of the Research Association for Advanced Systems (RaaS) is to provide a service through which anyone can have access to the most advanced semiconductor technology (Research as a Service). Our technology goal is a 10-fold increase in both development and energy efficiencies. To improve development efficiency, we will create an agile design platform and deploy open architecture. To improve energy efficiency, we will fabricate our chips using advanced CMOS processes and integrate them in 3D. The users will be able to design their own specialized chips the same way they write software and use them to realize digital transformation.

For more information: https://raas-cip.org/en/index.html

About Menta

Menta, a privately held company based in Sophia-Antipolis (France), is a proven pioneer of eFPGAs for ASIC and SoC designers seeking speed, accuracy, performance and efficiency. eFPGA’s adaptable architecture, based on design-adaptive standard cells-based and a state-of-the-art tool set, provides the highest degree of design customization, best-in-class testability, and fastest time-to-volume for SoC design at any foundry. As the leader in eFPGA IPs, Menta embodies excellence in innovation, offering customizable solutions of exceptional reliability. Our commitment to responsible progress, combining performance and sustainability, guides every step we take.

For more information: www.menta-efpga.com