READING, United Kingdom, May 28, 2025 — Aion Silicon (formerly Sondrel), an ASIC and SoC architecture partner, today announced it has secured a $12 million engagement to provide design services for a confidential customer developing 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:
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Complete RTL architecture, verification, Design for Test, physical implementation, and tape-out on a bleeding edge node RISC-V platform
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A dedicated team of Aion Silicon engineers willwork on site alongside the customer’s team to accelerate knowledge transfer and project velocity
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Standards-based, open instruction-set architecture and vector extensions eliminate proprietary lock-in and speed customization for AI and HPC workloads
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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.
