The European Processor Initiative Gets Ready for Commercialization with Startup SiPearl

The European Processor Initiative (EPI), an effort to create a native processor for exascale supercomputing in the region, has entered a new phase with the launch of SiPearl — a company dedicated to developing commercialized implementations of the project's technology.

The European Processor Initiative, founded as part of the European Union's Horizon2020 research and innovation program, brought together 26 companies and research institutions with the aim to create a native European high-performance microprocessor design — ending the region's reliance on technology from the US and other nations. Now, it has a 27th member: SiPearl, which aims to create commercial implementations of the technologies developed under the program.

“By delivering supercomputing power, energy efficiency and backdoor-free security," explains Philippe Notton, SiPearl's chief executive, "the solutions that we are developing with support from the EPI members will enable Europe to gain its independence and, more importantly, to ensure its technological sovereignty on the market for high performance computing, which has become one of the key drivers for economic growth."

SiPearl, founded by Philippe Notton, aims to integrate the output of the EPI with its own propriety technologies, creating commercial processors which it claims will embody the ideals of the project — including targeting the growth of the supercomputing industry into the so-called "exascale" era of performance, meaning a system capable of executing more than a billion billion calculations per second.

More information on the SPI is available from the official website, while SiPearl's website offers an overview of the company's goals — but not, it must be noted, a roadmap for production of its first commercial processor.