SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS, FRANCE – December 7, 2020 – Menta S.A.S, a premier supplier of embedded FPGA (eFPGA) solutions, today announced a technology IP cooperation with Andes Technology, a founding premier member of RISC-V International and the leading supplier of 32/64bit RISC-V embedded CPU cores.
Andes is working with Menta to enable embedded programmable logic through eFPGA in its RISC-V AndesCore™ families. Menta and Andes share the same vision, providing customers with a joint solution that allows instruction set architecture (ISA) extension to be added or changed in the field.
Extending RISC-V ISA with custom instruction set extension, based on eFPGA co-extended core, is the key differentiator for the next processor unit’s generation. Designers will be able to add any instruction they need for the function that they want to accelerate, in the field. This is a powerful feature that does not break any software compatibility and leaves space for development and differentiation.
“It is an honour for Menta to work in close partnership with Andes Technology Corporation,” said Menta Chief Executive Officer Vincent Markus. “The innovative RISC-V ISA technology is open, compact, modular and extensible, making it a perfect fit for our eFPGA product line strategy.”
The eFPGA plays the role of a hardware co-extended core for the RISC-V CPU, unlocking the possibility to add or reconfigure ISA for the duration of the product’s life. Andes RISC-V processor families, already available in the SoC market as a mainstream computing engine, are now looking to enhance the product’s ACE (Andes Custom Extension™) feature by extending it with eFPGA hardware support.