European Processor Initiative
The European Processor Initiative (EPI) is a European processor project. It is an SoC, of RISC technology, implementing microprocessor cores of ARM architecture and accelerators, specialised in matrix calculations and deep learning for artificial intelligence. It is based on the open source RISC-V (BSD licenses) architecture. It is financed by the Horizon 2020 program by the European Union. The processor is designed to be integrated in an exascale supercomputer, but also to be implemented in cars. The initiative is managed by a consortium of 27 partners including Atos-Bull, SiPearl, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the CEA, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and BMW, spread over 10 European countries.[1]
History
The initiative started in 2015, in the aim to produce an exascale supercomputer by 2023. The first phase of the project started in December 2018.[2] In the summer of 2019, the basis of the architecture was decided.[3] In January 2020, the first prototype was presented.[4]
References
- "How the European Processor Initiative is Leveraging RISC-V for the Future of Supercomputing". Inside HPC. 22 August 2019.
- Christian D. "EPI : un premier processeur HPC made in Europe en développement". Génération NT. 10th June 2019. on line.
- "How the European Processor Initiative is Leveraging RISC-V for the Future of Supercomputing". Inside HPC. 22 August 2019.
- Michael Feldman (27 January 2020). "European Processor Initiative Readies Prototype". NextPlatform.com.