Architecture research for open-source processors

16th March 2021

OpenHW Group

Alex Lynn

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OpenHW Group and Mitacs have announced OpenHW Accelerate, a $22.5M multi-year co-funded research program, for the next generation open-source processors. OpenHW Accelerate will drive architectures and support software for embedded AI and machine learning (ML) applications, among other future energy-intensive computing requirements.

OpenHW Group teamed up with Mitacs, a not-for-profit organisation supporting research within Canadian and International academic institutions to create the OpenHW Accelerate program.

Rick O’Connor, Founder and CEO at OpenHW Group, said: “OpenHW Group is transforming how the industry adopts open-source hardware and is bringing relevant research projects to leading industry and academic institutions worldwide. With strong support from Mitacs, the OpenHW Accelerate co-funded research project is available to all members and technology partners across the OpenHW ecosystem worldwide.”

The first OpenHW Accelerate project, CORE-V VEC, is a research effort to explore architectural optimisations for RISC-V vector processor implementations used in high-throughput multidimensional sensor data processing and ML acceleration at the Edge.

According to Dr John Hepburn, Mitacs CEO and Scientific Director: “The OpenHW Accelerate program, supported by the Government of Canada represents a major step forward in open-source hardware research. This collaboration marks the onset of first-of-its kind, openly-available hardware research to those around the globe; this accessibility reduces barriers for start-ups and small businesses to advance.”

The OpenHW Group and Mitacs plan to announce several new OpenHW Accelerate projects pairing industrial sponsors with academic institutions in the coming months.

With industry sponsorship from CMC Microsystems, CORE-V VEC is a three-year, joint-research collaboration between Polytechnique Montréal and ETH Zürich, institutions at the forefront of international semiconductor and software engineering research.

Gordon Harling, President and CEO of CMC Microsystems, added: “The potential of open-source hardware is boundless. As the industrial sponsor for the CORE-V VEC project, this is a perfect fit for CMC to connect research innovation with industrial applications like AI and machine learning where Canada is recognised as a global leader, and is well-positioned for future growth.”