Efinix and SMIC deliver first quantum-accelerated silicon product
Efinix has received silicon product samples for its first Quantum-accelerated programmable product platform, announced jointly by Efinix, an innovator in programmable product platforms and technology, with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. Built on SMIC's 40nm process, Efinix achieved this milestone with record breaking efficiency "“ going from product development using SMIC's Physical Design Kit (PDK) to system validation of the samples in less than six months.
"This is the first time Efinix has worked with SMIC, and I am impressed by the strong support they provided. SMIC's business and technical engagement with us created a strong foundation for our development success," said Sammy Cheung, co-founder, CEO, and president of Efinix. "Now we can focus on our 2018 production milestones and swiftly deploy our first Quantum-accelerated product line to serve high-volume markets worldwide."
Efinix's Quantum programmable technology delivers a 4X Power-Performance-Area advantage over traditional programmable technologies. This disruptive advantage enables Efinix's silicon products to compete in high-growth markets such as custom logic, deep learning, and compute acceleration.
"SMIC's 40nm Low Leakage platform has already been in mass production for over five years. It has more than 220 products. We are excited to be working with Efinix to develop the Quantum programmable technology on our advanced and reliable platform," said Sunny Hui, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing at SMIC. "FPGA programmable products are technically challenging to develop, but Efinix's Quantum technology made it straightforward. We look forward to working with Efinix to deliver its first product line to production and to support joint developments in the near future."
"This is an unprecedented level of efficiency in programmable product development. It sets the development time standard for the industry," said Bill Hata, former senior vice president of Worldwide Operations and Engineering at Altera Corporation (now part of Intel). Hata has more than 30 years of semiconductor industry experience and serves on Efinix's Advisory Board. "This capability is made possible by the silicon process agnostic nature of the Quantum architecture. Unlike leading FPGAs, this technology does not require silicon process customization to boost performance and logic element (LE) density."
