SiFive and Arkmicro accelerate RISC-V adoption in automotive electronics

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SiFive has announced that it has licensed its Automotive RISC-V IP cores to Arkmicro Technologies (Shenzhen), in a move that will help to accelerate the adoption of RISC-V in automotive electronics.

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Arkmicro is a well-known chip company supplying the automotive industry, with products already certified and mass-produced by numerous international automotive companies. Arkmicro will integrate SiFive Automotive solutions into its high-end automotive SoC chips.

SiFive has invested in the automotive market and has a growing list of top-tier customers and leading ecosystem partners.

The SiFive Automotive series has achieved ISO 26262 and ISO 21434 certification, and this pre-certified IP is intended to help reduce customers’ development time and effort. The SiFive Automotive series includes the 32-bit E6-A processor family and the 64-bit S7-AD processor family.

The E6-A series consists of the E6-AB processor, designed for real-time applications requiring ASIL B hardware safety integrity; the E6-AD processor, specifically developed for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and other critical safety applications; and the E6-AS processor, which supports configurable lockstep and non-lockstep modes and achieves ASIL D integrity when configured in lockstep mode.

The 64-bit S7-AD processor supports key safety applications, addressing the needs of customers looking for high-performance functional safety in applications such as zone controllers and functional safety islands.

“SiFive recognised early on that the automotive market places exceptionally high demands on quality and safety. To address this, we assembled a world-class team of automotive functional safety (FuSa) experts to help our customers quickly deliver safe, reliable, and certified products,” said Pete Lewin, Senior Director of Automotive Products at SiFive. “We highly value our collaboration with Arkmicro, which possesses advanced technology in the automotive sector and has been dedicated to automotive electronics for years. Arkmicro's chip products have been successfully mass-produced and adopted by renowned automotive manufacturers globally. This partnership will contribute to the development of RISC-V in high-end automotive MCU chips.”