Tape-Out of the Rhea1 by SiPearl The First European HPC Processor Is Being Manufactured By TSMC

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With the tape-out of the Rhea1 processor, Europe has taken an important step towards its own high-performance CPU for supercomputers. SiPearl transfers the final design to TSMC, where it will be manufactured using a 6-nm process. However, the real challenge begins now.

TSMC receives the masks for the first European HPC processor: Rhea1 from SiPearl is fully developed and is set to run in initial systems from 2026. The chip aims to strengthen Europe's technological independence— even though it cannot compete with the current global leaders.

For the first time, a European company is positioning an HPC processor within the ARM ecosystem. SiPearl, a spin-off of the European Processor Initiative (EPI), has handed over the final design of its 80-core chip Rhea1 to the contract manufacturer TSMC. The so-called tape-out marks the beginning of the phase in which the design is first transformed into physical silicon chips.

Rhea1 is based on Arm Neoverse-V1 cores, each offering support for two 256-bit SVE vector operations per core. The chip integrates 64 GB of HBM2e directly into the package and supports up to 512 GB of DDR5 RAM. The design unites approximately 61 billion transistors on the die. Rhea1 was developed in collaboration with partners such as Atos, STMicroelectronics, and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.

Supercomputer from Jülich Awaits Rhea1

The processor is used in the supercomputer "Jupiter" at the Jülich Research Center. 1,300 nodes, each with two Rhea1 chips, are expected to deliver around 5 PetaFLOPS—a small but symbolic contribution to the targeted ExaFLOPS system, which will be supplemented by GPU accelerators. Currently, Jupiter ranks 4th on the worldwide Top500 list.

The choice of TSMC, the Taiwanese market leader among chip manufacturers, is understandable: there is currently no foundry in Europe capable of economically producing chips of this complexity. The political ambition for complete European sovereignty thus remains a vision for now.

Rhea2 Announced as the Next Evolutionary Stage

While Rhea1 will appear in systems no earlier than 2026, SiPearl is already working on its successor. Rhea2 is set to utilize a chiplet design and offer up to 192 cores. Additionally, production using a 3-nm process is planned, which would likely require Asian contract manufacturers once again.

The funding is now on a broader basis. In a Series A round, SiPearl raised $152 million, including support from ARM, the French state, and European investors. Observers interpret this as a signal that the EU is continuing to pursue its semiconductor plans despite technological delays.

Compared to competition from the USA and Asia, Rhea1 has fallen behind technically. Intel, AMD, and Nvidia are now using HBM3 and significantly higher core densities. The value of Rhea1 lies less in its performance and more in its political impact: Europe can develop and bring its own HPC processors to production. (mc)

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