- Codasip sale fuels speculation that GlobalFoundries will expand RISC-V processor capabilities
- Studio Licensing Strengthens the Case for Custom Silicon Alongside Manufacturing Services
- Growing RISC-V portfolio increases possibility of future competition with Arm and AMD
Codasip, a Munich and Bristol-based semiconductor design company that develops RISC-V processor cores, is selling part of its business to an unnamed public U.S. semiconductor company, with speculation that the buyer could be none other than GlobalFoundries, the former AMD foundry.
Codasip confirmed that the company will divest its low-end RISC-V processor design unit while directing future work toward security-focused chip architectures and system-level products.
This low-end division includes processor cores used in embedded electronics, automotive systems and industrial hardware, where efficient and customizable designs are widely used.
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A three-part structure
GlobalFoundries is considered the most likely buyer as it has spent the last year acquiring RISC-V processor technology in several deals.
The company already owns MIPS and has agreed to acquire the ARC-V processor intellectual property from Synopsys, expanding its reach into specialized, higher-performance processor designs.
The addition of Codasip’s entry-level RISC-V cores would extend this portfolio to simpler embedded designs, creating coverage on both low-power and more advanced processor tiers.
The deal also includes a broad license for Studio, Codasip’s processor development software that allows customization of processor instructions.
This capability allows GlobalFoundries, which began as a manufacturing arm of AMD before becoming an independent semiconductor maker, to support custom chip development, giving customers the ability to modify processor behavior instead of relying solely on fixed designs licensed from companies such as Arm.
Arm has long dominated the embedded processor markets through royalty-based licensing, collecting fees from companies that build chips using its architecture.
A manufacturer that offers both manufacturing services and custom processor designs creates an alternative path, particularly for companies developing automotive, industrial and edge computing systems.
The continued expansion of processor technology could eventually place GlobalFoundries in competition with established chip designers.
Codasip described the sale as part of a broader shift in focus toward what it calls cyber-resilient semiconductor architectures.
Its future development work focuses on CHERI, short for Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions, a technology focused on limiting software exploits by enforcing stricter memory access rules directly in hardware.
“Cyber resilience has become a strategic requirement for governments, infrastructure operators and technology providers around the world,” said Ron Black, CEO of Codasip.
“Traditional approaches do not effectively harden systems security after the fact. Our goal is to enable partners to build security into the fundamental architecture of IT systems from the start.”
The transaction should be finalized in about a month, at which point we will know whether GlobalFoundries is indeed the buyer of Codasip’s low-end RISC-V processor design unit.
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