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European firm Openchip manufactures advanced chip, boosting digital autonomy
🇪🇸 Spain /Technology

European firm Openchip manufactures advanced chip, boosting digital autonomy

From La Vanguardia · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • European companies are pursuing greater digital autonomy, particularly in chip manufacturing, due to global supply chain disruptions and geopolitical insecurity.
  • Barcelona-based Openchip has successfully manufactured an advanced chip, the BER10, designed entirely within Europe using the open-source RISC-V architecture.
  • This development positions Openchip as a key player in Europe's strategic digital sovereignty efforts, though further development of the RISC-V ecosystem is needed.

Europe is strategically boosting its digital autonomy, especially in chip production, a sector previously dominated by global interdependence. Initiatives like the EU Chips Joint Undertaking and Chips Act reflect this push. Barcelona-based Openchip recently announced a significant milestone: the successful manufacture of its BER10 chip. This advanced chip was designed entirely in-house, free from restrictive intellectual property licenses from outside Europe.

In a world where the pandemic breaks supply chains and geopolitics generates strategic insecurity, this is no longer the case.

Discussing the shift from a globalized, peaceful world to one facing disruptions.

This achievement highlights Openchip's technical prowess and places it among the leading companies driving Europe's digital self-sufficiency. The company, with around 300 employees, primarily engineers, is now a key contributor to this strategic goal. However, achieving full sovereignty in chip design faces challenges, notably the need for a critical mass of users and developers.

Judiciously, Europe aspires to more digital autonomy (or sovereignty).

Explaining the motivation behind European initiatives like the Chips Act.

Chip design relies on established processor architectures. While dominant architectures like x86 and Arm have extensive ecosystems, they are proprietary and not European. Openchip's strategic choice is to develop under the RISC-V architecture. RISC-V is open-source, originating from the University of California, Berkeley, thus avoiding dependence on external intellectual property. Although the RISC-V ecosystem exists, it requires significant growth to underpin European digital sovereignty.

The design of chips must be done on the basis of an architecture (processor). I understand that different architectures are largely separate worlds and, therefore, when designing a chip, it is advantageous to do so on an already established architecture with a user ecosystem.

Explaining the technical challenge of choosing a chip architecture.

The EU recognizes RISC-V's potential, entrusting the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) with coordinating a consortium to develop its ecosystem. Openchip, founded in 2021 by BSC and engineering firm GTD, is a commercial entity, distinct from research consortia. Its strategic importance has secured initial public funding, including a €111 million grant from the EU's Perte Chip program.

The RISC-V ecosystem exists, it is not starting from scratch, but it needs to grow if it is to be the basis of European digital sovereignty.

Describing the current state and future needs of the RISC-V architecture.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by La Vanguardia in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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