Co-authors:
- Jawad Nasrullah, CEO of Palo Alto Electron
- Anu Ramamurthy, Associate Fellow, Design at Microchip Technology
The OCP Foundation is excited to announce a significant development in our ongoing mission to drive open innovation in the world of specialized computing. The OCP Community Subproject formerly known as Open Domain-Specific Architecture (ODSA), under the top-level Server Project, is now being renamed to Open Chiplet Economy. This change reflects the project's evolution and the growing importance of chiplet technology in the semiconductor industry.
Just as a strategy of modularization has impacted data center hardware at large, from design and operations, so too is this trend coming to the foundations of computing silicon. High-performance and domain-specific system-on-chip (SoC) compute architectures have grown larger and more expensive to produce, and chiplets are the disaggregated, modular equivalent integrated with new advanced 2D and 3D system-in-package (SiP) engineering.
Celebrating the Success of ODSA
Since its inception, the ODSA project has played a pivotal role in advancing the use of chiplets, allowing for greater modularity and flexibility in designing high-performance computing systems. The many cooperating ODSA workstreams have successfully brought together a diverse community of contributors, including semiconductor manufacturers, system integrators, and technology providers, all working towards a common goal of creating open specifications and standards for chiplet-based architectures. That goal started bearing fruit after several years of building a base of knowledge, in 2022 with the 1st OCP approved Contributions on interconnect specifications, available here.
Introducing the Open Chiplet Economy (Formerly ODSA) Subproject
With the renaming of the Subproject to "Open Chiplet Economy," we are aligning the scope of the project to encompass not just the technical aspects of chiplet design ecosystem but also the economic dynamics that are shaping the future of the semiconductor industry. The project name of Open Chiplet Economy mirrors the naming of the recently launched section of the OCP Marketplace by the same name. In addition to the Community collaboration in the project, the representative vendors are also creating an emerging marketplace for individually sourced chiplets, bringing the power of modular, interoperable components to SiP.
The Open Chiplet Economy Subproject is where the upstream work happens in the Community. It deals with multiple aspects of building a selection of chiplets into a SiP . The main aspects to this work are, 1) the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools/flows needed to enable the chiplet based design workflows, 2) the collateral needed to build a SiP consisting of chiplets with a business component that looks at the economics of chiplets and how that changes the marketplace, and 3) the interfaces that connect chiplets together.
Work aspects in Open Chiplet Economy Subproject.
For a detailed workstream list and call calendar, visit the project page
In the Subproject, each of these categories has a number of workstreams working collaboratively to develop coherent specs, white papers, methodologies, best practices, etc. for an open chiplet market to thrive. That’s where the OCP Marketplace comes in, specifically with its new Open Chiplet Economy section. It allows suppliers of products, services and equipment to present their offerings to the semiconductor world. Vendors and companies can list their chiplets or services and showcase training courses, white papers describing best practices, technical information about interfaces, collateral, video links, and data sheets. It is designed to cover the entire spectrum of the chiplet economy covering both chiplet vendors, companies open for partnerships, and the entire support ecosystem, including:
- Chiplet Vendors
- Partnership Opportunities
- IP Providers (D2D, NOC, eFPGA, Metrology, etc.)
- Design Services
- EDA and Tool Vendors
- Foundries, Packaging, Assembly and Test
- Educational Material
A New Chapter for Open Compute Project
The renaming of ODSA to Open Chiplet Economy marks an exciting time for the OCP Foundation as we approach our OCP Global Summit in October with much content aligning with the OCP’s strategic initiative: Open Systems for AI. Of course, chiplets are now powering AI and AI is being used in advancing chiplet design.
As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in specialized computing, we invite all members of the Community to join us in shaping the future. Whether you're a chiplet designer, a systems integrator, or simply interested in the latest trends in computing, the Open Chiplet Economy among many other projects at OCP offers a wealth of opportunities for innovation and collaboration.
Finally, if you’re part of the world of chiplets, from its automated design tools to open interfaces, to its economy, please join the Open Chiplet Economy Subproject today and be part of the next wave of open computing innovation.