SiPearl Rhea CPU enters testing phase, set for late 2026 launch

Rhea CPU Development Milestone

SiPearl has announced that its Rhea CPU, intended for high-performance workloads, has reached a significant milestone as it enters the bring-up phase after five years of development. This custom CPU is designed to support supercomputing applications with advanced features including a unique memory subsystem and multiple cores.

Technical Specifications

The Rhea CPU boasts over 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores, two 256-bit Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) engines, and substantial memory capabilities. It includes 1MB of L2 cache per core and 80MB of system-level cache, along with four HBM2E interfaces supporting 64GB of on-package memory. Additionally, it provides up to 2TB of memory per socket through DDR5 interfaces.

Next Steps and Future Availability

Currently in its 12-week bring-up process, the Rhea CPU is reported to be functioning as intended, eliminating the need for any respin. The test version of Rhea1 will be available for evaluation by partners and collaborative EU projects before its expected market launch. SiPearl plans for general availability by the end of 2026.

Market Expectations and Competition

SiPearl acknowledges that while Rhea may not be the top-performing HPC CPU, there is interest from unexpected sectors, suggesting potential viability in the competitive CPU market. The company remains optimistic about its position as Europe moves toward sovereign computing capabilities.