E4 Computer Engineering joins RISC-V International

The company aims to promote the development and application of the RISC-V open standard in ecosystems for HPC applications

Scandiano (RE), May 3rd 2022 – E4 Computer Engineering (E4) has officially joined RISC-V International (RISC-V), which promotes the development of an ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) based on open source principles.

E4 thus joins companies such as Google, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, IBM and Samsung, among the numerous members of RISC-V and will contribute to the development of the ecosystem with its know-how and skills to actively promote servers development, featuring ISA RISC-V, which offers competitive performance.

Based in Switzerland, RISC-V has broken down barriers in the semiconductor industry by bringing together different companies, sectors and geographies for open collaboration. RISC-V combines a modular technical approach with an open licensing business model, which means that anyone, anywhere, can take advantage of the IP contributed and produced by RISC-V.

RISC-V currently has more than 2,700 members, including well-known and highly specialized companies in the world of technology, all with the desire to innovate by pooling their skills. RISC-V’s goal is to break business and technical barriers imposed by proprietary models in the processor and ISA market, focusing on an open source approach, particularly in the embedded, cloud and HPC sectors.

E4 already boasts concrete and significant experience in this area: in 2020 it designed, with the University of Bologna and CINECA, the Monte Cimone cluster, a RISC-V based cluster aimed at development activities and performance evaluations, and is currently working on a similar project with the University of Turin.

“Over the years, E4 has set itself the constant goal of exploring the most innovative and advanced technologies and their potential impact on research initiatives”, explains Cosimo Gianfreda, CEO of E4 Computer Engineering. “Our products have been designed with user needs, with the aim of making these systems user-friendly, while providing maximum performance at the lowest TCO. RISC-V represents a key opportunity for co-design and development of innovative technologies and it is a significant step forward in proposing high-tech and energy-efficient solutions.”

“We are excited to welcome E4 Computer Engineering into the RISC-V member community, afirming the common goal of shared innovation that benefits stakeholders across the industry and around the world. E4 strengthens the RISC-V HPC leadership in Europe and builds on the collaboration that has developed between over the years”, points out Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “Shared skills and expertise will progress cutting-edge technologies to meet the growing needs of a market in constant, and above all, rapid evolution.”