HPC Innovator Taps Aion Silicon for $12M RISC-V Accelerator Program

End-to-End ASIC Partnership to Accelerate Global Supercomputing Market with Open-Standard, Energy-Efficient Silicon

READING, U.K. – May 29, 2025 – Aion Silicon (formerly Sondrel), a leading ASIC and SoC architecture partner, today announced it has secured a $12 million engagement to provide comprehensive design services for a confidential customer developing next-generation RISC-V–based accelerators for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The multi-year program leverages Aion Silicon’s two decades of SoC expertise to help the customer introduce disruptive, energy-efficient processors that target the most compute-intensive workloads in data centers and scientific research worldwide.
Under the agreement, Aion Silicon will deliver the full spectrum of design work—from RTL architecture and verification through Design for Test, physical implementation, and tape-out—on a bleeding edge node RISC-V platform.

“The global HPC race demands accelerators that deliver extreme performance per watt,” said Oliver Jones, CEO of Aion Silicon. “This project shows how our team can turn bold RISC-V architectures into manufacturable silicon that challenges the dominance of proprietary solutions.”

Engagement Details

End-to-end expertise — Complete RTL architecture, verification, Design for Test, physical implementation, and tape-out on a bleeding edge node RISC-V platform

On-site collaboration — A dedicated team of Aion Silicon engineers will work alongside the customer’s team to accelerate knowledge transfer and project velocity

Standards-based innovation — Open instruction-set architecture and vector extensions eliminate proprietary lock-in and speed customization for AI and HPC workloads

Market impact — Accelerators are expected to deliver industry-leading efficiency, challenging the dominance of legacy architectures in data-center and scientific computing

Engineering work is under way, with additional hires planned through 2025 as the design moves toward tape-out and initial silicon.

About Aion Silicon

Aion Silicon is a trusted partner in high-performance semiconductor design, specializing in advanced System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions—including tailored ASICs—for AI, automotive, HPC, 5G, networking, and other applications. Its full-service, high-touch engineering model with consultative project leadership guides customers from SoC architecture and IP selection through design, foundry tapeout, and volume production. With over 20 years of experience in SoC architecture, front-end and back-end services, Aion Silicon reduces technical and economic risk for customers, accelerating time-to-market, while optimizing for commercial success. As a foundry-neutral and IP-agnostic partner with hundreds of successful tapeouts, Aion Silicon leverages a world-class ecosystem to deliver tailored solutions that meet each customer’s unique needs. To learn more, visit www.aionsilicon.com.