Specific Grant Agreement (SGA) for the development of a large-scale European initiative for HPC ecosystem based on RISC-V

The DARE consortium is invited to submit a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) proposal for the 1st phase of research activities and roadmap defined in the FPA. 

The proposal for the 1st phase of DARE will cover the design and development of a European processor, accelerators, and related technologies for extreme-scale, high-performance applications, in accordance with the research roadmap defined in the FPA. The proposal should leverage software/hardware co-design to achieve the next levels of performance and efficiency in RISC-V based HPC systems. The proposed work should target performance levels, supported by appropriate KPIs, competitive to non-EU solutions by the end of the DARE initiative.

The aim of this SGA is to design and deliver energy efficient high-end tape-outs of a general-purpose processor and of two accelerators, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Accelerator and a Vectorial Accelerator, for HPC based on RISC-V silicon and chiplet solutions with advanced memory interfaces.

The proposed action should cover the design, testing and development of the hardware components and their integration in a pilot system in view of their roll-out, uptake and use in world-class competitive supercomputers.

The proposed action should also develop a RISC-V software stack, including key elements such as programming models, runtimes, libraries, tools, and operating system components. Moreover, the proposal should leverage software/hardware co-design to achieve the next levels of performance and efficiency in RISC-V based HPC.

More details 

Background

Following the call HORIZON-EUROHPC-JU-2022-TECH-03, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has selected the DARE consortium to establish an FPA for developing a large-scale European initiative for an HPC ecosystem based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture. This FPA represents a stable and structured long-term partnership with the DARE consortium for implementing a European strategic and ambitious R&I initiative. The DARE FPA will  focusi on the development of innovative hardware and software, processor and accelerator technology for HPC. The ecosystem will be based on the RISC-V open standard.. The development of European processors and accelerators should prepare the technology for its future integration in post-exascale supercomputers to be acquired at a later stage by the EuroHPC JU, targeting systems incorporating European technologies.

The FPA ensures the implementation of the initiative through SGAs that will implement the different proposed technology roadmap activities.