Graphcore Selected 16nm FinFet ESD Solutions from Sofics for its Transformative Artificial Intelligence Processor

Silicon proven IP path significantly reduces risk, time-to-market and overall cost

Belgium -- February 26, 2019 – Graphcore (www.graphcore.ai), the technology company that has developed a completely new type of processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), which lets artificial intelligence (AI) innovators create next generation AI applications, selected TakeCharge® technology from Sofics bvba of Belgium (www.sofics.com) to protect its Colossus GC2 IPU from electrostatic discharge (ESD). Sofics is a leading semiconductor integrated circuit IP provider.

“Efficient AI processing power is rapidly becoming the most sought-after resource in the technological world. We believe our IPU technology will become the worldwide standard for machine intelligence compute. Confidence in our chosen partners is critical to us – Sofics offered us flexibility with customization, a proven silicon ESD portfolio and fast time to market. Within just a few weeks we went from first contact to contract to solution delivery,” said Phil Horsfield, VP Silicon at Graphcore.

“This reflects exactly our value in the fabless ecosystem: enable customers like Graphcore with timely delivery of pre-developed and proven solutions: customized to, and matching their advanced applications, with robustness as needed, at a cost that is lower and within a timeline that is much faster than any alternative development”, said Koen Verhaege, CEO at Sofics.

“Whether it is 0.18um CMOS or 12nm FinFet does not really matter. Fabless companies will always benefit from a shorter timeline and a lower cost combined with the confidence of a working solution”.

TakeCharge cells as well as robust I/O solutions are readily available from Sofics.

About Sofics – Sofics stands for “Solutions for ICs”. We are a foundry independent IP provider with a track record in on-chip robustness for ESD, EOS and EMC. Leveraging an extensive patent portfolio, more than 60 licensees, product proof in more than 50 processes, generates on average every day one new IC volume production release including Sofics IP.