Keysom Wiki

Keysom

Keysom is a French deep‑tech startup founded in 2022, focused on democratizing custom processor design by offering a no‑code, RISC‑V based design platform and automated IP generation tool. Headquartered in the Bordeaux region of France, Keysom empowers companies—especially in IoT, industrial automation, and Edge AI—to rapidly design tailored processors that strike optimal trade‑offs in power, performance, and silicon area.

🔹 Company Overview

• Founded: 2022 by four semiconductor industry veterans

• Headquarters: Bordeaux (Pessac), France

• Employees: 11–50 professionals, predominantly in R&D

• Core Focus: Custom, energy‑efficient RISC‑V cores and accelerators via software automation

🧠 Technology & Platform

Keysom Studio / CoreXplorer

Keysom’s flagship product suite—often called CoreXplorer—provides an intuitive, no‑code environment for generating and evaluating up to millions of processor configurations. It enables exploration of custom RISC‑V architectures tailored to specific application constraints, providing:

• ISA customization (pipeline depth, FPU, vector units, security, etc.)

• Automated generation of compilers, HALs, drivers, and debug tools

• Formal verification and architecture performance modeling

• Support for Edge AI applications with specialized plug‑ins and accelerators

This design automation significantly reduces silicon area, power consumption, and development cycle time, empowering customers without deep processor design teams.

🚀 Key Architectures

• K-Core series: Compact 32‑bit RISC‑V cores optimized for ultra‑low‑power IoT and sensor applications

• KF-Core: Adds FPU support for performance and floating‑point workloads

• KV-Core: Includes vector extensions for AI and compute acceleration
  These cores are fully configurable for feature sets, operating modes, and target PPA trade‑offs.

🌍 Markets & Use Cases

Keysom targets application spaces where custom, efficient processors can offer a competitive edge, including:

• IoT and wearable devices – minimal power and die size

• Industrial automation – robust, tailor‑made real‑time controllers

• Edge AI – on‑device inference using compact and energy‑efficient cores

• Automotive – sensor fusion and domain controllers requiring configurability and reliability

🧠 Company Strengths

• No‑code design flow that streamlines processor architecture exploration

• Democratized customization, enabling companies without large custom silicon teams to build optimized cores

• Energy and area efficiency through architecture optimization at RTL generation stage

• Formal verification support built into the tool chain for design robustness

• Commercial agility of a small team with deep domain expertise

🔄 Business Model

Keysom offers processor core IP and platform access under licensing terms, often paired with design or integration services. Customers benefit from upfront cost efficiencies, royalty/licensing models, or tool-based subscriptions depending on the agreement.

📋 Company At a Glance

Keysom is positioning itself at the intersection of processor IP and EDA automation, unlocking the ability to generate custom RISC‑V cores without requiring deep architectural expertise. Let me know if you’d like a comparative section or deeper dive into their tool chain and architecture families.

Keysom Company Website

Keysom on SemiWiki