Andes Technology announced general availability of the high-performance AndesCore?? AX45MPV multicore vector processor IP. The AX45MPV is the third generation of the award winning AndesCore??

vector processor series. Equipped with powerful RISC-V vector processing and parallel execution capability, it targets the applications with large volumes of data such as ADAS, AI inference and training, AR/VR, multimedia, robotics, and signal processing. Andes and Meta started collaboration on datacenter AI with RISC-V vector core from early 2019.

Andes later unveiled the AndesCore?? NX27V, marking a significant milestone as the industry's first commercial RISC-V vector processor core with the capability of generating up to 4 512-bit vector (VLEN) results per cycle, at the end of 2019. It immediately attracted the attention of worldwide SoC design teams working on AI accelerators, and has landed over a dozen datacenter AI projects.

Since then, the RISC-V vector processor cores have become the choice for ML and AI chip vendors. With the goal to further raise the compute density, the AX45MPV extends the capabilities of the dual-issue 8-stage pipeline, Linux support and multicore of the AX45MP with the powerful vector processing unit inherited and enhanced from its predecessor, the NX27V. While the AX45MPV is essentially a Linux application processor with datacenter grade AI capabilities, its support for Linux and multicore can be left out to form an efficient and powerful compute processor in processing elements (PEs) of a large compute array.

The AX45MPV also supports the latest ACE (Andes Custom Extension??), which facilitates customers to create their own RISC-V styled vector instructions. For example, ACE can be used to accelerate nonlinear math functions such as SoftMax on Transformer AI. Some customers from Asia and North America have already licensed the AX45MPV, and more are evaluating it.

Their applications cover a wide range from the cloud to the edge. The AX45MPV standard product package, without Linux support, is available immediately. Its advanced product package will come with Linux support and will be available in Fourth Quarter 2023.