Andes Announces the AndesCore™ 46-Series Family and the 3rd generation Vector Processor AX46MPV with Matrix Extension

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Andes Technology Corporation
Andes Technology Corporation

Hsinchu, Taiwan, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andes Technology, a leading supplier of high efficiency, low-power 32/64-bit RISC-V processor cores and Founding Premier member of RISC-V International, today announces the AndesCore™ 46-series processor family with 4 members. The first member, AX46MPV, a new 64-bit multicore superscalar vector processor IP, is the third generation of the award-winning Andes Vector core. While it maintains the same 8-stage dual-issue pipeline as its predecessor AX45MPV, it incorporates numerous new features such as dual load/store units, private L2 cache, an extended VLEN, Andes Matrix Multiply Extension, and RVA22 profile support. Except vector and matrix support, the second member, AX46MP, has the exact same features as the AX46MPV while the third member, A46MP, and fourth member, A46MPV, are the 32-bit versions of AX46MP and AX46MPV. This makes the 46-series ideal for network processors running Linux, high-performance embedded controllers requiring high memory throughput, and large-scale AI/ML applications.

The AX46MPV enhances SpecInt2006 performance by over 15% compared to the previous generation AX45MPV, thanks to its newly designed memory subsystem. The private L2 cache significantly reduces memory latency while the dual load/store engine eliminates memory bottlenecks in memory-bound computation kernels. It supports up to 16 cores in the same cluster, featuring cache coherence and a shared L3 cache with doubled capacity of the AX45MPV. Additionally, the AX46MPV provides TrustZone-level security with ePMP and IOPMP, accompanied by a pre-integrated software solution.

The AX46MPV introduces several enhancements for AI/ML, including longer 2048-bit vectors, new Andes Matrix Extensions to efficiently speed up GEMM performance, and greatly improved High-Bandwidth Vector Memory (HVM) interface supporting outstanding requests and out-of-order responses. A high-performance HVM controller serving up to 16 cores and DMA accesses with 64 memory banks is optional for licensing. The AX46MPV now also includes BF16 full arithmetic mode as a standard feature. Additionally, the award-winning Andes Automated Custom Extension™ (ACE) is available in the 46-series, featuring customized vector instructions (ACE_RVV) with enhanced pipeline and Streaming Port (ASP).

"We are thrilled to introduce the 3rd generation of the Andes Vector series, further strengthening our leadership in the AI SoC market," said Dr. Charlie Su, President and CTO of Andes Technology. "Our NX27V and AX45MPV have been highly successful in high-performance AI SoC applications. The AX46MPV, boosted with both compute performance and memory bandwidth, is intended to bring the new-generation AI SoCs to the next level of compute density. Additionally, with enhanced capabilities in Linux, security, and AIoT, the highly configurable 46-series is a well-rounded solution with balanced performance, power, and area"