Europe's exascale dreams inch closer as SiPearl finally tapes out Rhea1 chip

Euro chip designer SiPearl has finally taped out its Rhea1 processor destined for Jupiter, the first European exascale supercomputer, just as its Series A financing round ends with an injection of cash from a new investor.

Taping out means that the Rhea1 chip design is complete and its physical layout has been optimized for a specific production process. In this case, the design was handed off to Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC a few weeks ago to start manufacturing, SiPearl says.

Rhea1 is already behind schedule. The design was due to be available in 2022, but SiPearl then said that the first silicon would appear in 2023. Now the first sample silicon is slated to be available in early 2026.

The chip was originally planned for TSMC's N6 6nm process node - SiPearl's engineers could have used the delay to target a newer, smaller node. However, a company spokesperson confirmed ...