Flow is developing Parallel Processing Unit (PPU) to RISC-V. Flow also joins RISC-V International as a Strategic Member

17 October, 2024 – Helsinki – Flow Computing Oy - the pioneer in licensing on-die ultra-high-performance parallel computing solutions to CPU vendors of all instruction set architectures – today announced it has officially joined RISC-V International as a strategic member and is aggressively developing around RISC-V as its first officially-supported CPU architecture.

Flow’s groundbreaking new architecture, referred to as a Parallel Processing Unit (PPU), boosts CPU performance up to 100-fold through PPU banks that are integrated on-die through a license from Flow.

The PPU-enhanced RISC-V designs will be fully compatible with every existing software application for the baseline RISC-V CPU architecture. As a result, all significant parallel functionality in current and future RISC-V software can be accelerated through the Flow-enhanced RISC-V CPU design and its parametric scaling capabilities in parallel acceleration.

Capable of being easily integrated into any CPU design architecture, instruction set or process geometry, Flow provides a roadmap towards achieving a revolutionary up to 100-fold acceleration, enabling future generations of “SuperCPUs”. 

The more PPU cores integrated on-die, the higher the performance boost that will be subsequently gained and PPU can be optimized for different  tiers and use cases of the CPU market - mobile, PC and supercomputer. Flow’s technology is also complementary in nature to the entirety of the device motherboard as well as any peripheral boards - while it boosts the CPU, all other connected units (such as matrix units, vector units, NPUs and GPUs) holistically benefit from the the more-capable PPU-powered CPU.

“We are excited to welcome Flow as a technical innovation pioneer joining the ranks of so many other companies, institutions,and alliances from around the world who have recognized the importance of collaboration across a vibrant ecosystem built on the standard RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “Their decision to make RISC-V first in their PPU roadmap is a win for the entire community and we are very proud to welcome Flow as the newest member of RISC-V International.”

“The decision to focus our initial development efforts around RISC-V were clear-cut and obvious from our very first incorporation as a spinout from VTT, the Technical Research Center of Finland,” said Timo Valtonen, CEO and co-founder of Flow Computing. “The RISC-V community is vibrant and incredibly active - as strong believers in the Open Source ethos, we are very much looking forward to being strong partners in the ongoing development for RISC-V and being active contributors in both hardware and software to the community.”

“The openness of the RISC-V architecture gives Flow unprecedented access to a number of building blocks, extensions and tools which will significantly speed up PPU product development and we are looking forward to contributing back to this amazing community,” said Dr. Martti Forsell, CTO & Chief Architect and co-founder of Flow Computing who is behind Flow’s technological innovations.

About Flow Computing:
Flow Computing is a pioneering startup based in Helsinki, Finland enabling the next generation of CPU performance for the most demanding applications, such as locally-hosted AI and general-purpose parallel computing.

This revolutionary performance leap is achieved using the company’s patented Parallel Processing Unit (PPU) licensable architecture and compiler ecosystem - enabling developers to choose their preferred ratio of raw performance for new apps vs. maintaining legacy code and application compatibility when required. Flow's groundbreaking architecture also turbocharges embedded systems and data centers, for uses such as edge and cloud computing, AI clouds, autonomous vehicle systems, military-grade computing and more. Learn more at www.flow-computing.com.

To learn more about RISC-V International, visit www.riscv.org.