Applications
High performance RISC-V solutions
Data Center
The connected world is driving an insatiable demand for compute, storage, and security capabilities built out in Cloud data centers worldwide. DPUs (Data Processing Units) have now become mainstream to offload virtualized software-defined networking, storage, and security functions from general compute servers to maximize server value. CXL is providing the catalyst to rapidly drive disaggregated data center architectures, enabled through DPUs to provide runtime management of resources. These Hyperscaler innovations from the industry’s move to the Cloud are now being leveraged for Hybrid-Cloud and event-driven Serverless processing, which in turn is pushing these principles out into Edge data centers and on-prem Enterprise equipment.
Ventana’s power-efficient high-performance technology enables leading performance across DPUs, edge compute platforms, and up into high-end servers at a given TDP. RISC-V provides the freedom to innovate with domain-specific DPU acceleration, deployed through integrated solutions within Ventana’s partner chiplet ecosystem. Ventana’s focus on server-class technology from day one means best-in-breed servers can be built to capitalize on growing RISC-V cloud-native porting investments.
Edge Compute / AI
As the growth of attached devices continues to grow exponentially, streaming data over backhaul networks to data centers for processing becomes intractable. Therefore, moving compute to the Edge where data is generated becomes imperative. Additionally, Edge computing provides service latency benefits for critical applications like regional Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication networks. While data centers have seen explosive growth of AI/ML as an effective tool to solve complex problems, Edge AI places this intelligence at the Edge to improve end-user experience and data security. Deploying server-class technology within these edge compute platforms is important to enable a seamless agile service delivery from data center to Edge.
Ventana’s server-class power-efficiency technology is key to delivering that data center experience at the Edge. Ventana’s compute chiplets built in leading-edge technology nodes, with autonomous power-performance management, greatly simplifies maximizing performance out of these power-constrained platforms.
Ventana is working with partners to move their board-level domain-specific acceleration, such as AI/ML, into cost-effective System-in-Package (SiP) solutions for the Edge.
5G Infrastructure
Mobile network operators are rapidly moving from custom, integrated Baseband Units (BBUs) to Virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) where many functions can move to Edge/Cloud data centers. Open RAN (ORAN) is further working towards vendor-neutral open interfacing standards that allow flexible partitioning of vRAN functions across Radio Units (RU), Distributed Units (DU), and Centralized Units (CU).
This allows operators the freedom to compose RAN networks to best meet the needs of different deployment scenarios. Agile principles are used to rapidly drive cloud service innovation through virtualized or container functions running on these standard hardware platforms.
Ventana is partnering with leaders in wireless signal processing to pair Ventana's power-efficient RISC-V CPUs with 5G domain specific acceleration to create software defined modular silicon platforms. Ventana’s chiplet strategy enables a rapid deployment of a wide diversity of accelerated RU/DU/CU solutions enabled with ORAN software stacks ported to RSIC-V.
Automotive
Vehicles are becoming more connected, autonomous, and software-defined (SDV). Distributed systems within the vehicle are becoming more centralized within standardized open software platforms that support Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. This is creating demand for high-end server-level performance effectively transforming vehicles into miniaturized data centers on wheels. These computational demands within challenging automotive power and thermal constraints create an ideal scenario for RISC-V to deliver domain-specific acceleration on a common ISA with general compute.
Recognizing the demand for Ventana’s performance class in automotive, with autonomous requiring the highest level of safety and cybersecurity, Ventana is developing a full range of AEC-Q100 automotive-grade products that meet ISO26262 (FuSa) and ISO21434 (Cybersecurity) SEooC certification standards.
While automotive has traditionally used soft IP to integrate large complex monolithic SoC, Ventana’s chiplet strategy opens new doors to greatly simplify the integration by decoupling the complex CPU integration from the automotive-specific features that would drive towards a different technology node choice. Leveraging a broad IP/chiplet ecosystem, Ventana compute can be targeted at a wide range of applications.
Client
Mobile and large-screen compute is the final frontier for RISC-V to deliver innovation and freedom through high-volume open software platforms. RISC-V International is rapidly growing its worldwide collaboration efforts to drive this innovation and enable the associated software ecosystem.
Ventana delivers the CPU performance and power efficiency needed to bring RISC-V into the highest tier of mobile and client applications. Ventana’s technology can be integrated as soft IP into cost-effective SoC integrations, or as compute chiplets broken out from the base SoC. This allows better compute scalability across product tiers and faster targeting of the latest technology nodes independent of base product integration.
