A consortium led by Intel is working on a standard for using chiplets on chips. This will make it easier to assemble chips and also give smaller companies faster access to the market.
The Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express, UCIe to its friends, is a standard for communication between different chiplets on a microchip. Version 1.0 of the standard was developed largely by Intel, which then donated UCIe to a consortium. That includes AMD, Arm, Qualcomm, TSMC, Samsung and Microsoft, among others.
Standard Language
UCIe should standardize how different chiplets talk to each other. The standard is based on PCIe and Compute Express Link (CXL). Chiplets are small building blocks for a chip that together form a larger whole. For example, AMD is betting heavily on chiplets by not making one monolithic chip with 32 cores, but instead combining four chiplets with eight cores. The approach further allows CPU cores to be combined with other components such as graphics chiplets or chiplets for accelerators.
With the open standard, consortium members aim to make it easier to build microchips from chiplets. In addition, the approach should lower the market entry barrier for smaller players. After all, if they can rely on the UCIe standard, it will become easier to combine new chiplets with existing components.
No Nvidia
One company is conspicuous by its absence: Nvidia. As a specialist in graphics chips and accelerators, Nvidia is nonetheless a logical party to include in the story. It is unclear whether the GPU giant was not invited or sent its cat. That Apple does not want to play along is less surprising. That company’s initial reaction in the face of an industry standard is usually to turn around and develop something itself, almost on principle.
Companies that have more advanced interconnect technology of their own can make it UCIe-compatible. That’s handy for AMD, for example, with its own Infinity Fabric. The next versions of UCIe will see participating companies develop more in tandem.