en.Wedoany.com Reported - On June 2, local time, GlobalFoundries, a U.S. semiconductor foundry, announced the completion of its acquisition of Synopsys' ARC processor IP solutions business. Following the transaction, GlobalFoundries will integrate the ARC processor IP with its MIPS business, forming a RISC-V processor IP product portfolio covering high-performance, mid-range, ultra-low-power computing, and AI cores.
This acquisition signals GlobalFoundries' expansion from traditional foundry services into processor IP, software tools, and custom chip co-development. The ARC business was a key part of Synopsys' processor IP portfolio, covering ARC-V RISC-V CPU IP, ARC CPU IP, DSP IP, neural processing unit IP, and related software development tools. After completing the acquisition, GlobalFoundries combines these assets with its previously acquired MIPS RISC-V capabilities, offering a more comprehensive "software-to-silicon" technology platform for automotive, industrial, intelligent edge, robotics, wearable, and physical AI applications. For customers, the value of this combination lies in chip design no longer being limited to purchasing a single IP and performing system adaptation independently; instead, it enables tighter synergy across processor architecture, dedicated instruction sets, AI computing cores, software development tools, and manufacturing processes.
The concurrently acquired ASIP Designer and ASIP Programmer tools will support customers in designing and programming application-specific instruction set processors tailored to specific workloads.
Such tools are particularly critical for next-generation custom chips. As AI applications shift from cloud data centers to vehicles, factory floors, smart devices, and edge nodes, general-purpose processors struggle to simultaneously meet computing power, power consumption, latency, cost, and security requirements across all scenarios. Application-specific processors can optimize instruction sets around specific algorithms, sensor data streams, control logic, or neural network tasks, enabling higher energy efficiency under fixed workloads. By combining processor IP, ASIP tools, and its mature specialty process technologies, GlobalFoundries helps customers shorten the cycle from algorithm definition and architecture design to tape-out and verification. It also allows the company to build new service boundaries around differentiated processes, embedded non-volatile memory, RF, low power, and automotive-grade platforms without pursuing the most advanced process nodes.
For the global semiconductor industry, foundries are shifting from "manufacturing by design" to deeper platform-based collaboration. GlobalFoundries' acquisition of the processor IP business, following its earlier acquisition of MIPS, reflects a continuous effort by mature process foundries to seek new growth avenues: packaging IP, software tools, reference architectures, and manufacturing processes to serve customers who need to rapidly develop custom chips but lack complete chip design teams. Synopsys, in turn, can further focus on core businesses such as EDA, interface IP, and foundation IP. As the RISC-V ecosystem expands, the integration of processor IP with foundry platforms will influence chip development pathways for vehicle control, industrial intelligence, edge AI, and low-power devices.
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