Akeana Wiki

Akeana is a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) company specializing in high-performance RISC-V processor cores, system-on-chip (SoC) infrastructure, and associated design IP. The company provides configurable CPU cores, interconnect fabrics, and supporting subsystems that allow semiconductor manufacturers to create customized chips across a wide performance spectrum. Akeana’s products target applications ranging from low-power microcontrollers to high-end data center processors and artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators.

Akeana’s central goal is to provide a comprehensive, scalable platform that allows customers to design SoCs with the performance, efficiency, and flexibility required for next-generation compute workloads. Its technology portfolio spans from embedded computing to server-class processors, challenging traditional proprietary architectures such as ARM.

History

Akeana was founded in 2021 by a group of engineers with experience in high-performance processor design, many of whom previously worked on data center-class CPUs at leading semiconductor companies. The company operated in stealth mode for its first three years, focusing on the development of a complete RISC-V processor ecosystem.

In 2024, Akeana emerged from stealth and announced its processor IP portfolio, along with a major round of funding exceeding $100 million. The company is privately held and headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Its investors include prominent venture capital firms with a history of supporting semiconductor innovation.

Products and Technology

Akeana organizes its offerings into several processor families and complementary IP components designed to address a wide range of computing needs.

Processor Families

• Akeana 100 Series: Entry-level, 32-bit RISC-V cores optimized for deeply embedded and real-time applications such as microcontrollers, smart home devices, and wearables. These designs prioritize low power consumption and compact silicon area.

• Akeana 1000 Series: Mid-range, 64-bit cores that can be configured as in-order or out-of-order pipelines, supporting virtualization, vector processing, and Linux-capable memory management. This family targets edge computing, automotive, and industrial systems.

• Akeana 5000 Series: High-performance 64-bit cores aimed at data center, cloud, and AI workloads. These processors emphasize high single-thread performance, multithreading, coherent multi-core scalability, and optional integration with matrix-based AI accelerators.

System IP and Interconnects
Akeana provides coherent and noncoherent interconnect fabrics that link multiple cores and subsystems within an SoC. Its system IP suite includes cache controllers, interrupt controllers, I/O memory management units, and coherence managers. The company also offers configurable Network-on-Chip (NoC) infrastructure that supports both small-scale embedded systems and large, multi-socket designs.

AI and Acceleration
Akeana integrates matrix computation engines and neural network accelerators designed for inference and training tasks. These accelerators can attach directly to the coherent interconnect, enabling high-bandwidth, low-latency data movement between compute and memory.

Design and Verification

Akeana emphasizes extensive pre-silicon verification and toolchain support. Its design flow integrates with major electronic design automation (EDA) platforms to enable rapid simulation, emulation, and debug of large SoCs. The company provides customers with development kits, performance models, and simulation environments that allow early software bring-up and architecture exploration before tape-out.

Ecosystem and Software Support

To support adoption, Akeana maintains compatibility with the RISC-V open software ecosystem, including GNU and LLVM toolchains, Linux and real-time operating systems, and standard debug infrastructures. Its goal is to offer a unified development environment across all processor classes, reducing software fragmentation and easing migration between product tiers.

Market Position and Strategy

Akeana competes directly with established IP vendors such as ARM, SiFive, and Andes Technology. Its strategy centers on configurability—allowing customers to tailor pipeline depth, vector capabilities, threading, and cache hierarchy to match their target workloads. This approach aims to reduce design time and licensing costs while offering flexibility not typically available from fixed-architecture IP providers.

By providing a consistent architecture from low-end to high-end cores, Akeana seeks to simplify the SoC design process and appeal to companies pursuing specialized, high-performance computing products. Its early traction has been strongest among companies developing AI accelerators, automotive platforms, and custom silicon for edge inference.