For more than 2 years now, Aedvices has been bringing its expertise in design and verification to Kalray design team.
Read Marc Schmitz’s interview.
Marc is Director of Hardware Development at Kalray. He tells us why he chooses to work with Aedvices engineers.
Can you introduce your company?
Kalray is a “fabless” semiconductor company, leader in a new generation of processors, specialized in intelligent data processing both at the “Cloud” and “Edge” levels (at the periphery of networks).
Thanks to their patented “manycore” architecture, Kalray’s intelligent MPPA® processors are able to manage in parallel – and without bottlenecks – multiple data streams, thus allowing applications exploiting massive quantities of data to be more intelligent, more effective and energy efficient. Kalray’s offer includes processors, acceleration cards with their software environment and complete systems, allowing its customers to design the best solutions in high growth sectors such as modern data centers, 5G, AI, Edge Computing, Autonomous Vehicles and more.
Founded in 2008, Kalray is a spin-off from the CEA and counts among its investors Alliance Venture (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi), Safran, NXP Semiconductors, CEA and Bpifrance.
What were the challenges?
The development of our new generation of processor involves extensive technological challenges and a very significant increase in engineering effort.
We therefore looked for a trusted partner able to assist us during the design of our new processor, and thus to relieve our team from the development of certain blocks or subsystems outside the scope of Kalray’s key core competence but nevertheless requiring a very high level of expertise.
Why did you choose to work with Aedvices?
I knew François Cerisier and I had already worked with Aedvices’ engineering teams in the past. So, I naturally turned to them.
The subjects I wanted to pass over to them were complex, both in design and verification. The Kalray team greatly appreciated the technical exchanges which made it possible to confirm that our needs were well understood.
We also very much appreciated the option of leveraging their expertise both in a “design office” mode, with a turnkey delivery of the finished project, as well as in technical assistance.
How did the Aedvices team meet your expectations?
We used Aedvices’ professional services for selected IP turnkey design services. We also used them as technical assistance in “Design” and “Design Verification”.
In technical assistance, Aedvices is always attentive, very flexible and agile to meet our needs, even in a period of tension on resources’ availability.
The proposed consultants have relevant profiles. There is no waste of time with inappropriate ones. A critical topic we particularly appreciated is the overall support of Aedvices’ management who pays special attention to ensure everything goes well.
Working with a design office is very valuable when the subject to be treated is perfectly defined. It allows us to focus our efforts on the areas of the project where stand our innovation, our know-how and our added value.
Aedvices took charge of the project in AGILE mode. The team was able to adapt to our organization and our methodology. It also established excellent communication with Kalray team through regular progress reports.
Aedvices remained attentive to all our requests all the way through our project. In the end, the team delivered the expected blocks within the agreed time and budget. So that we could integrate them seamlessly into our project.
What’s next?
We are very happy with our collaboration with Aedvices, which we keep enjoy until the “Tape-Out” of our current project.
At the same time, we are already preparing the next generation of our processor. For this we plan to renew our collaboration with Aedvices.
To learn more about Kalray: www.kalrayinc.com
