PRESS RELEASE

Achronix Demonstrates Silicon Validation Device with 112Gbps SerDes

Santa Clara, Calif., March 27, 2019 – Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a leader in FPGA-based hardware data acceleration devices, today announced that it completed testing and is now demonstrating the 112Gbps SerDes that will be used in its next generation FPGA devices. The SerDes silicon validation chip was fabricated on TSMC’s 7nm FinFET process technology. These 112Gbps SerDes provide true multi-standard support for a wide range of digital serial communications standards with data rates ranging from 1Gbps to 112Gbps.

The results from the 112Gbps SerDes validation chip shows that the transmitter generates clean eye diagrams and exhibits excellent linearity, jitter, and SNDR (signal to noise and distortion ratio) with sharp rise and fall times at multiple data rates up to the SerDes’ maximum 112Gbps. The SerDes’ receivers employ advanced DSP techniques including CMA (constant modulus algorithm) adaptive equalization and decision-based adaptation to deliver the best possible receiver performance at low power.

“Achronix 7nm generation data acceleration FPGAs will include the industry’s most advanced, high quality, low cost and low power SerDes for high end data acceleration applications,” said Robert Blake, Achronix CEO. “Achronix has shown once again that it can design and build the highest performance semiconductor products on the most advanced processes that are fully functional.”

These SerDes are optimized for power-efficiency and die size while delivering optimal performance, which is critically important for high performance applications including AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning), HPC (high-performance computing), high-performance network switching for cloud-scale and telco data centers, 5G cellular base stations, and edge networking. These high-performance applications demand ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth, which strains the existing networking infrastructure in data centers, 5G installations, edge systems, and IoT networks. Early adopters developing equipment and installations for these applications are already installing 400GbE ports to reduce the amount of cabling required to meet bandwidth requirements. Very often, these high-speed ports are created by aggregating multiple, lower-speed ports such as ten 40GbE or eight 50GbE ports. Upgrading to 100Gbps ports is a sorely needed option to reduce cabling and installation costs. 112Gbps SerDes reduces lane and port count, current consumption, and heat dissipation, thus reducing the costs associated with building next-generation hyperscale network infrastructures.

The 112Gbps SerDes on Achronix’s silicon validation device are based on Alphawave’s AlphaCORE MSS (multi-standard SerDes) IP and support virtually all data center and telco serial communications standards including the many versions of Ethernet, PCIe (PCI Express), CPRI, and many others.

Said Tony Pialis, Alphawave’s founder and CEO, “We are pleased that Achronix is using our latest generation of 112Gbps Long-Reach SerDes IP for their next-generation FPGA products. Tier one companies, creating equipment for data centers and other networking applications, that are starved for bandwidth, wanted to see that we had a compelling, flexible, and robust solution that works in real Silicon. This test chip, developed in partnership with Achronix, demonstrates that we can deliver robust 112Gbps IP solutions for next generation data centers.”

About Achronix Semiconductor Corporation

Achronix Semiconductor Corporation is a privately held, fabless semiconductor corporation based in Santa Clara, California and offers high-performance FPGA and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) solutions. Achronix’s history is one of pushing the boundaries in the high-performance FPGA market. Achronix offerings include programmable FPGA fabrics, discrete high-performance and high-density FPGAs with hardwired system-level blocks, datacenter and HPC hardware accelerator boards, and best-in-class EDA software supporting all Achronix products. The company has sales offices and representatives in the United States, Europe, and China, and has a research and design office in Bangalore, India. Find out more at https://www.achronix.com

About Alphawave

Alphawave is a team of technology industry veterans and engineers with a nearly 20 year history of building successful Silicon/IP teams. The company’s unique, DSP based, multi-standard connectivity Silicon IP solutions leverage years of experience and R&D to build the most power efficient, high performance solution available on the market to enable devices of the future. Founded in 2017, Alphawave has already seen strong success and impact in delivering proven Silicon in leading 7nm process. Profitable since day one, Alphawave is investing heavily in existing and future products. This has already resulted in Alphawave building one of the most technologically exciting and fastest growing businesses in the history of semiconductors. Find out more at https://www.awaveip.com