Europe's SiPearl Unveils Athena1 Processor for Defense and Aerospace
SiPearl, a European company, has announced the Athena1 processor. This chip is designed specifically for the defense industry and aerospace, marking a significant step in Europe's effort to reduce dependence on foreign chip manufacturers.
Athena1 is the first model of its kind, designed by SiPearl as part of the European Processor Initiative (EPI). It uses 80 ARM Neoverse V1 cores, unlike the Rhea1 processor which has High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM2e) directly on the CPU carrier. The processor is strictly dependent on DDR5 memory, making it more affordable.
Airbus, a leading aerospace manufacturer, is responsible for developing a variation of Athena1 tailored for the defense industry and aerospace. The processor comes in variants with 80, 64, 48, 32, and 16 CPU cores, offering flexibility to meet different needs.
Initially, TSMC, a Taiwanese chip foundry, will handle further processing of Athena1 chips, including mounting them on their carriers. TSMC also produces Rhea1 chips, but there's no European alternative for the suitable manufacturing process yet. SiPearl aims to bring the packaging of Athena1 chips to Europe later to strengthen the local industry.
Athena1, a European processor, will be available for purchase by governments and manufacturers in the EU starting from the second half of 2027. It is designed for three main application fields: government, defense industry, and aerospace. By introducing Athena1, Europe takes a step towards achieving technological sovereignty in the semiconductor industry.
