Baidu backs RISC-V startup for Chinese datacentre chip
Chinese cloud giant Baidu has invested in StarFive to develop a high performance computing (HPC) chip based on the RISC-V instruction set.
Competitors Alibaba and Tencent have both shown RISC-V HPC chips developed internally for their data centres, and StarFive has a partnership with Imagination Technologies in the UK for key AI accelerator IP.
- SiFive creates global network of RISC-V startups
- Scaleable RISC-V module for distributed AI processing
- Imagination GPU for BeagleV RISC-V single board
Baidu said the investment was strategic but would not comment on the size of the deal. StarFive said it had so far raised $146.46 million.
StarFive is the Chinese arm of US RISC-V IP developer SiFive set up in 2018, but has since raised its own funding and has its own product roadmap that includes boards.
In January it launched its latest high performance single board computer (SBC), the VisionFive 2. This uses the StarFive 64bit, 1.5GHz RISC-V JH7110 chip with integrated Imagination GPU.
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- Virtual models for Imagination’s Catapult RISC-V core
