Think Silicon Joins SiFive's Growing DesignShare Ecosystem

Low-power graphics IP now available through DesignShare, enabling companies of all sizes to develop custom silicon

SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 5, 2017 – SiFive, the first fabless provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors, today announced that Think Silicon, a leader in developing ultra-low power graphics IP technology, has joined the growing DesignShare economy. Through DesignShare, Think Silicon will make its complementary NEMA^®|GPU and NEMA^®|dc IP available for SiFive’s Freedom SoCs Platform at reduced upfront investment from customers.

With a silicon footprint 2.5 times smaller than competitive IP, Think Silicon’s proprietary compression techniques reduce the memory size six-fold, eliminating the need for external DDR memory. The result is a reduction of active power consumption by 73 percent, and 58 percent in idle mode.

“The DesignShare concept is the key platform that will help Think Silicon extend its ultra-low power GPU technology into the next generation of mobile and embedded display devices and provide developers with the necessary tool chain for an easy integration and application development,” said Ulli Mueller, vice president of marketing and business development, Think Silicon. “We are excited to partner with SiFive and the other DesignShare participants breaking down barriers to assist and encourage customers developing innovative products.”

Since the launch of the DesignShare initiative earlier this summer, companies like Think Silicon have provided low- or no-cost IP for proof of concept projects and to emerging companies, lowering the upfront engineering costs required to bring a custom chip design based on the SiFive Freedom platform to realization. In turn, this gives any company, inventor or maker the ability to harness the power of custom silicon, enabling an entirely new range of applications.

“It’s exciting to see SiFive’s DesignShare movement grow as more companies are taking up the mantle to help reduce the barriers that have traditionally blocked system designers from developing custom silicon,” said Shafy Eltoukhy, head of the DesignShare program at SiFive. “With Think Silicon on board the DesignShare initiative, we look forward to seeing the inventions inspired by our collaboration.”

In addition to Think Silicon’s ultra-low power graphics and memory IP, developers can access cryptographic cores, precision clocking macros, embedded analytics, debug and trace technology, embedded, reconfigurable FPGA and logic-based, non-volatile memory through the DesignShare program.

About SiFive

SiFive is the first fabless provider of customized semiconductors based on the free and open RISC-V instruction set architecture. Founded by RISC-V inventors Andrew Waterman, Yunsup Lee and Krste Asanovic, SiFive democratizes access to custom silicon by helping system designers reduce time-to-market and realize cost savings with customized RISC-V based semiconductors. SiFive is located in Silicon Valley and has venture backing from Sutter Hill Ventures, Spark Capital and Osage University Partners. For more information, visit www.sifive.com.

About Think Silicon

Think Silicon S.A. is a privately held Limited Company located in: Patras/ Greece (HQ), Toronto/ Canada (Business Development & Marketing office), San Jose/CA, USA (Sales office), Cologne, Germany/EMEA region (Sales office), Taipei/TW (Sales office), Tokyo/JP (Sales office). Think Silicon is specialized in developing and licensing high-performance graphics and AI IP technology for ultra-low power and area limited digital mobile, wearable, embedded devices and IoT end-nodes for fabless semiconductor technology customers.