RIKEN Adopts Siemens' Emulation And High-Level Synthesis Platforms for Next-Generation AI Device Research

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Siemens Digital Industries Software announced today that RIKEN, a national research and development agency in Japan, is enhancing its research on next-generation AI devices with Siemens' comprehensive Veloce™ Strato CS emulation and Catapult™ High-Level Synthesis (HLS) platforms to conduct architecture and design space exploration of AI accelerator devices.

“RIKEN’s adoption of Siemens’ emulation and HLS capabilities enables the team to conduct the necessary explorations during our research into next-generation AI devices for ‘AI for Science’ and maintain our position as the creators of the world’s most powerful supercomputer,” said Dr. Kentaro Sano, team leader of the Processor Research Team at the Center for Computational Science, RIKEN. "Our goal is the establishment, management, and continuous enhancement of the computational infrastructure essential for the creation of generative AI models tailored for scientific discoveries – and Siemens’ tools play an essential role in this research.”

The RIKEN Center for Computational Science, part of Japan’s largest research organization for computational science and a world leader in a diverse array of scientific disciplines, is known for developing supercomputers such as the K computer and Fugaku.

Dr. Kentaro Sano, team leader of the Processor Research Team at RIKEN Center for Computational Science (right) and Yukio Tsuchida, vice president for Japan, Electronic Design Automation, Siemens Digital Industries Software (left)

"We are delighted to support RIKEN's groundbreaking research on AI devices. Our latest Veloce Strato CS and Catapult HLS platforms provide RIKEN with the comprehensive tools to achieve their research goals and drive innovation in the field of AI," said Jean-Marie Brunet, vice president and general manager, Hardware-Assisted Verification, Siemens Digital Industries Software

"Siemens is incredibly proud to support the cutting edge research and development taking place at RIKEN, and we look forward to supporting the organization as it works to achieve its goals to explore the outer boundaries of what’s achievable when bringing the power of AI to scientific research at vast scale," said Yukio Tsuchida, vice president for Japan, Electronic Design Automation, Siemens Digital Industries Software.

The combination of Siemens’ hardware-based Veloce Strato CS and Catapult HLS platforms provide RIKEN with world-class technology for enabling rapid synthesis and emulation of large-scale Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). These Siemens tools support RIKEN's efforts in evaluating the performance of optimized AI computing circuits and the system-on-chips (SoCs) that incorporate these circuits. The AI accelerator developed through this research will be a candidate for deployment in the next-generation supercomputers following the supercomputer Fugaku , scheduled to start operation around 2030 at the latest.