Synopsys has developed the industry’s fastest standard semiconductor intellectual property (IP) for ‘chiplets’. Chiplets is a technology that connects heterogeneous semiconductors to enhance performance, and this IP increases speed by over 25% compared to previous versions.
Recently, Synopsys announced that it has successfully developed a 40Gbps-grade UCIe PHY IP. UCIe is the standard protocol for chiplets, an advanced packaging technology that connects semiconductor dies with different functions. More than 120 semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, TSMC, Intel, and AMD, are collaborating in a consortium.
The UCIe PHY IP developed by Synopsys is a circuit block that facilitates signal transmission between semiconductors. In order to implement semiconductors with multiple functions into a single chip, connection technology is critical. Especially, performance depends on the speed at which signals are transmitted within the chip.
Currently, Samsung Electronics and TSMC are using UCIe IP in their semiconductor foundry production, and the highest commercialized top speed is around 32Gbps. Synopsys’ next-generation IP has improved speed by 25%, further enhancing the performance of the final chip.
Michael Posner, Synopsys’ Vice President of IP Product Management, said, “By actively contributing to the UCIe consortium, we will help our customers successfully develop and optimize multi-semiconductor designs for high-performance AI computing systems.”
Synopsys plans to aggressively target the system semiconductor design and foundry market with its 40Gbps UCIe IP. It is known that Synopsys has been collaborating with several semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics, from the early stages of IP development. Samsung Electronics’ System LSI division is expected to use this IP for the development of next-generation semiconductor chips.
Lee Jong-woo, Vice President of the IP Development Team at Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Division, said, “Heterogeneous integration, which enables high-bandwidth ‘die-to-die’ connections, can provide new memory chiplets needed for data-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) applications. By utilizing Synopsys’ new UCIe IP, we will expand collaboration and develop the industry’s best chiplets solutions for high-performance data centers.” Synopsys plans to supply this IP to semiconductor foundry companies, including Samsung Electronics and TSMC, in the second half of the year.