Alphawave Semi Showcases 3nm Connectivity Solutions and Chiplet-Enabled Platforms for High Performance Data Center Applications

There were quite a few announcements at the TSMC Technical Symposium last week but the most important, in my opinion, were based on TSMC N3 tape-outs. Not only is N3 the leading 3nm process it is the only one in mass production which is why all of the top tier semiconductor companies are using it. TSMC N3 will be the most successful node in the history of the TSMC FinFET family, absolutely.

(Graphic: TSMC)

In order to tape-out to 3nm you need IP and high speed SerDes IP is critical for HPC applications such as AI which is now the big semiconductor driver for leading edge silicon. Enabling chiplets at 3nm is also a big deal and that is the focus of this well worded announcement:

Successful launch of 3nm connectivity silicon brings chiplet-enabled custom silicon platforms to the forefront Alphawave Semi 3nm Eye Diagram

LONDON, United Kingdom, and TORONTO, Canada – April 25, 2023 – Alphawave Semi (LSE: AWE), a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world’s technology infrastructure, today announced the bring-up of its first connectivity silicon platform on TSMC’s most advanced 3nm process with its ZeusCORE Extra-Long-Reach (XLR) 1-112Gbps NRZ/PAM4 serialiser-deserialiser (“SerDes”) IP.

An industry-first live demo of Alphawave Semi’s silicon platform with 112G Ethernet and PCIe 6.0 IP on TSMC 3nm process will be unveiled at the TSMC North America Symposium in Santa Clara, CA on April 26, 2023.

The 3nm process platform is crucial for the development of a new generation of advanced chips needed to cope with the exponential growth in AI generated data, and enables higher performance, enhanced memory and I/O bandwidth, and reduced power consumption. ZeusCORE XLR Multi-Standard-Serdes (MSS) IP is the highest performance SerDes in the Alphawave Semi product portfolio and on the 3nm process will pave the way for the development of future high performance AI systems. It is a highly configurable IP that supports all leading edge NRZ and PAM4 data center standards from 1112 Gbps, supporting diverse protocols such as PCIe Gen1 to Gen6 and 1G/10G/25G/50G/100 Gbps Ethernet.

This flexible and customizable connectivity IP solution together with Alphawave Semi’s chiplet-enabled custom silicon platform which includes IO, memory and compute chiplets, allows end-users to produce high performance silicon specifically tailored to their applications. Customers can benefit from Alphawave Semi’s application optimized IP-subsystems and advanced 2.5D/3D packaging expertise to integrate advanced interfaces such Compute Express Link (CXLTM), Universal Chiplet Interconnect ExpressTM (UCIeTM), High Bandwidth Memory (HBMx), and Low-Power Double Data Rate DRAM (LP/DDRx/) onto custom chips and chiplets.

“We are thrilled to be one of the first companies to successfully demonstrate our highest performance silicon platform with our XLR 112G Ethernet and PCIE6.0 SerDes IP on TSMC’s most advanced 3nm technology”, said Tony Pialis, CEO and co-founder of Alphawave Semi. “This represents a significant stepforward in our execution of Alphawave Semi’s strategy to be a vertically-integrated semiconductor leader in high-speed connectivity. Thanks to our rapidly growing partnership with TSMC through the Open Innovation Platform© (OIP), we continue to deliver innovative, high-performance custom silicon and IP solutions to our customers in data center, compute, networking, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, and storage applications.”

“Alphawave Semi continues to see growing demand from our hyperscaler customers for purpose-built silicon with very high-speed connectivity interfaces, fueled by an exponential increase in processing of AI-generated data”, said Mohit Gupta, SVP and GM, Custom Silicon and IP, Alphawave Semi. “We’re engaging our leading customers on chiplet-enabled 3nm custom silicon platforms which include IO, memory, and compute chiplets. Our Virtual Channel Aggregator (VCA) partnership with TSMC has provided invaluable support, and we look forward to accelerating our customers’ high-performance designs on TSMC’s 3nm process.”

About Alphawave Semi

Alphawave Semi is a global leader in high-speed connectivity 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. To find out more about Alphawave Semi, visit: awavesemi.com.

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