Semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has agreed to acquire RISC-V supplier MIPS, an unexpected pairing of nonoverlapping businesses. The companies have withheld the price, indicating it is immaterial to the acquirer. MIPS will retain autonomy after the acquisition and still serve customers of other foundries.
The deal solidifies MIPS’s status as a going concern, trading its venture-capital backers for the stability of a corporate owner. Since Sameer Wasson took over as CEO, the company has narrowed its focus to physical AI and sought to differentiate by easing the chip-design process for OEMs without extensive ASIC experience.
Physical AI refers to the inference processing of sensor data and is a stand-in concept for low-level control and other functions addressed by microcontrollers. Target markets include automotive, industrial, and aerospace. These sectors use sensors, have long product lives, and require safety certification. GloFo targets the same markets by supporting analog circuits, automotive qualification, low-power logic, and other features to address their requirements.
Earlier this year, MIPS disclosed two ease-of-use initiatives. In addition to licensing CPU designs (IP) and moving beyond offering a subsystem (CPU plus local memories and basic peripherals such as an interrupt controller), the company began creating full-chip reference designs. To complement these reference chips, MIPS released the Atlas Explorer development tool. Based on models, Atlas Explorer enables pre-RTL software development and CPU customization.
Bottom Line
The RISC-V architecture is winning in deeply embedded and control-processing niches, coalescing a fragmented space. Despite the consolidation, licensing RISC-V CPUs is a tough business owing to the many suppliers and low prices. MIPS sought success by offering more than just cores. Operating as part of GloFo should offer MIPS marginal benefits, giving customers confidence that it will be able to execute its roadmap and support designs. For GloFo, every foundry needs IP, although primarily for cell libraries and other basic building blocks. Aligning a chipmaker with a CPU licensor targeting the same markets should add customers to each business’s sales funnel.