Bosch and Tenstorrent will work together to standardize car chips
German industrial giant Bosch will collaborate with US chip startup Tenstorrent to develop a platform for standardizing the building blocks of automotive chips, Tenstorrent executives said.
The plans include developing a standard method of using a building block of modern chips called chiplets to create systems that can power vehicles with significantly different needs, Tenstorrent chief customer officer David Bennett said in an interview.
By combining different quantities and types of chiplets to form complete processors, the two companies aim to reduce costs and increase the speed at which new silicon products are brought to the automotive industry.
“(Bosch) is working with us to essentially redefine how automakers look at silicon: buy silicon and build silicon,” Bennett said.
Rushed by the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), cars have increasingly become products that resemble large computer systems that run off a battery on four wheels.
The technical complexity of introducing electrification and automated driving systems has prompted automakers to explore new avenues to build or purchase the necessary chips.
Chip giants such as Nvidia, Qualcomm and Intel-owned Mobileye produce a range of driver assistance chips and associated software.
The idea behind the partnership with Bosch is that standardizing the technical requirements surrounding the chiplet building blocks could lower prices, Bennett said.
Producing a large volume of a standard chiplet that could be added or removed as needed for each application would save money. Automakers would also get more customization options for each design, instead of buying off-the-shelf parts, said Thaddeus Fortenberry, vice president of Tenstorrent Automotive.
The collaboration does not yet include specific products or sales to car manufacturers.
Tenstorrent is led by Jim Keller, who led Tesla’s efforts to design an autonomous driving chip. Keller has designed chips for AMD and Apple, among others.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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