- Athena1 targets government, defense and aerospace with security-focused dual-use processor designs
- SiPearl develops sovereign European processor but faces global competition when released in 2027
- Europe pushes for processor sovereignty while relying on TSMC manufacturing
French chip designer SiPearl announced Athena1, a processor designed for both government and defense applications, as well as aerospace use cases.
The processor is described as a bespoke version of Rhea1, the company’s first-generation processor, but with features specifically tailored to sensitive workloads such as cryptography, secure communications, tactical networking and intelligence processing.
The Athena1 family will be available in configurations offering 16, 32, 48, 64 or 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores, with the choice based on performance needs and thermal requirements.
Affirming Europe’s strategic independence
Manufacturing of the chip will be handled by TSMC, with packaging initially taking place in Taiwan, before moving to Europe in a later phase to encourage a domestic supply chain.
SiPearl says Athena1 is intended to meet “dual-use” demands, where processors serve both civilian and military purposes.
This includes applications ranging from electronic sensing to local data processing on board vehicles.
Commercial release of Athena1 is planned for the second half of 2027, and more technical details will be announced closer to launch.
“In an era of geopolitical uncertainty, where cybersecurity challenges and armed conflicts are increasing, Europe’s technological sovereignty is increasingly inseparable from sovereign hardware, whether in civilian or, more importantly, defense applications,” said Philippe Notton, CEO and founder of SiPearl.
“It was therefore natural for SiPearl to capitalize on the expertise developed by its R&D teams in HPC to develop a new version of our first processor that perfectly meets the needs of dual-use uses. As part of the roadmap entrusted to us by Europe to promote the return of high-performance processor technologies to the continent, Athena1 is the ideal complement to Rhea1 to help assert the strategic independence of Europe,” he added.
The launch is part of Europe’s growing push for independence in the semiconductor sector and follows the new SiP CRAFTWERK announced by European start-up Euclyd, which claims bandwidth levels far higher than Nvidia’s designs.
It remains to be seen whether Athena1 will be able to compete with its American or Asian rivals when it debuts.
Look on it
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp Also.
