Via GlobeNewswire June 19, 2024 07:05 ET

InspireSemi Announces Tapeout of its Thunderbird Accelerated Computing Chip

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and AUSTIN, Texas – June 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)  Inspire Semiconductor Holdings Inc. (TSXV: INSP) (“InspireSemi” or the “Company”), a chip design company that provides revolutionary high-performance, energy-efficient accelerated computing solutions for High Performance Computing (HPC), AI, graph analytics, and other compute-intensive workloads,is pleased to announce the successful tapeout of its Thunderbird I Accelerated Computing chip for fabrication at TSMC.

Thunderbird I is InspireSemi’s versatile “supercomputer-cluster-on-a-chip”, an advanced SOC (System on Chip) that packs 1,536 64-bit custom RISC-V CPU cores on a single chip, tightly integrated with high-speed memory and low-latency networking. This versatile compute accelerator delivers unprecedented performance for a wide range of applications, with best-in-class energy efficiency and a disruptive price point.

Thunderbird leverages the established and open RISC-V CPU software ecosystem. Since most software is written for CPUs, it is much easier to support vs. requiring a complete re-architecting of software to run on GPUs, and which in many cases is not worth the effort or expense.

Compared to a modern datacenter GPU, Thunderbird provides all the raw computational power with far broader application to real world HPC software applications and codes. It is also an ideal platform to accelerate large graph analytics workloads, which are used in important applications such as fraud detection, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, pharma clinical trials, and supply chain management.

The initial product will be an industry standard server PCIe add-in card with 4 Thunderbird devices, delivering >6,000 CPU cores that support double precision math (64-bit floating point, aka FP64) required for many important HPC applications.

Ron Van Dell, CEO of InspireSemi, said, “We are proud of the accomplishment of our engineering and operations team to finish the Thunderbird I design and submit it to our world-class supply chain partners, TSMC, ASE, and imec for production.  We expect to begin customer deliveries in the fourth quarter.”

Alex Gray, Founder, CTO and President of InspireSemi, said, “This is a major milestone for our company and an exciting time to be bringing this versatile accelerated computing solution to market. Thunderbird accelerates many critical applications in important industries that other approaches do not, including life sciences, genomics, medical devices, climate change research, and applications that require deep simulation and modeling.”

About InspireSemi

InspireSemi (TSXV: INSP) provides revolutionary high-performance, energy-efficient accelerated computing solutions for High-Performance Computing (HPC), AI, graph analytics, and other compute-intensive workloads. The Thunderbird ‘supercomputer-cluster-on-a-chip’ is a disruptive, next-generation datacenter accelerator designed to address multiple underserved and diversified industries, including financial services, computer-aided engineering, energy, climate modeling, and life sciences & drug discovery.  Based on the open standard RISC-V instruction set architecture, InspireSemi’s solutions set new standards of performance, energy efficiency, and ease of programming.  InspireSemi is headquartered in Austin, TX.

For more information visit   https://inspiresemi.com
Follow InspireSemi on LinkedIn

Investor Relations Contact
Phil Carlson/Scott Eckstein
KCSA Strategic Communication
inspiresemi@kcsa.com

Company Contact
John B. Kennedy, CFO
(737) 471-3230
jkennedy@inspiresemi.com

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”). Statements concerning InspireSemi’s objectives, goals, strategies, priorities, intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and the business, operations, financial performance and condition of InspireSemi are forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” (or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or come to pass.

Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information regarding: (i) the business plans and expectations of the Company including expectations with respect to production and development; and (ii) expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors (iii) expectations as to the use of funds in respect of the Financing. Forward-looking information is based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans, strategies or beliefs as of the date of this presentation, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of InspireSemi, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors may be based on information currently available to the Company including information obtained from third-party industry analysts and other third-party sources and are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. Any and all forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect management’s expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Forward-looking information reflects management’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to them and on assumptions they believe to be not unreasonable in light of all of the circumstances. In some instances, material factors or assumptions are discussed in this news release in connection with statements containing forward-looking information. Such material factors and assumptions include, but are not limited to: (i) statements relating to the business and future activities of, and developments related to, the Company after the date of this press release; (ii) expected completion of or satisfaction of all closing conditions in connection with the Financing, including receipt of final approval from the Exchange; (iii) expectations for other economic, business, regulatory and/or competitive factors related to the Company or the technology industry generally; (iv) the risk factors referenced in this news release and as described from time to time in documents filed by the Company with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca; and (v) other events or conditions that may occur in the future. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and, other than as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

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