Some of the world’s biggest technology and chipset companies like Intel, Meta, Google, TSMC, AMD, and ASE have formed a consortium to standardize chiplets, which are blocks of integrated circuits on a system-on-chip (SoC). The coalition aims to ease up the process of “die-to-die” connections in hardware and software and enable manufacturers to “mix and match” chiplets from different companies to produce a customized SoC for users. Let’s take a look at the details.
Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) Established
The new coalition between these tech companies has even come up with the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) 1.0 specification standard for the industry. It will be an open standard to “establish a ubiquitous interconnect at the package level.“
Amidst the global chip shortage, affecting supply chains and operations of many companies, the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) aims to help companies speed up the development of CPUs and SoCs by using ready-to-use chiplet designs from other companies instead of developing their own design from scratch.
The founding members of the UCIe standard include Google, Meta, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, TSMC, AMD, ARM, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE). The companies have published a white paper for the UCIe standard. Although, the companies are in the middle of finalizing the incorporation as an open standards body.
The companies also have some work to do like defining the chiplet form factor, management, enhanced security, and other protocols later this year. Hence, chipsets built using the new UCIe standard could take a while to reach the commercial market.
There is no doubt that future chipsets will become more homogenous, thanks to the new UCIe standard. If this arrives in the market soon, it can potentially end the global chip shortage. Furthermore, companies could sell their chiplet designs to other companies to expand the reach of their technology. And this could be helpful for various devices and services in the market.
So, what do you think about the new UCIe standard? Do you think it would be useful in the industry? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
