How Arteris is Revolutionizing SoC Design with Smart NoC IP

The semiconductor industry is at a pivotal juncture. As chip complexity grows and time-to-market pressures tighten, traditional design methods are proving insufficient. Amid this landscape, Arteris is leading a transformative shift with its cutting-edge Smart NoC IP solutions, showcased at the recent IP-SoC Days conference in Santa Clara.

This event, organized by Design & Reuse, brought together IP innovators and consumers under one roof to explore the future of semiconductor design. While many presentations stood out, one in particular left a lasting impression: a detailed and forward-looking talk by Rick Bye, Director of Product Management at Arteris, and Guillaume Boillet, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing.

Their presentation offered more than a glimpse into new products — it introduced a new paradigm for tackling the mounting challenges of System-on-Chip (SoC) design.

Understanding the Modern SoC Challenge

Modern SoCs are no longer linear or manageable through manual processes. With 5 to 20+ unique Network-on-Chip (NoC) instances per chip, each requiring multiple iterations, design cycles are becoming longer and more expensive.

Manual configuration, routing, and optimization are no longer viable at scale. What engineers need is automation, intelligence, and integration — a solution that not only scales but also learns and adapts.

Enter FlexGen: Smart NoC IP for the AI Era

Arteris has responded to this challenge with FlexGen, its flagship Smart NoC IP solution. Built upon the foundation of its widely adopted FlexNoC technology, FlexGen introduces AI-powered automation and physical design awareness into the chip design workflow.

Key Advantages of FlexGen

• 10x Faster Design Cycles
  FlexGen accelerates the design process significantly by reducing iteration time from weeks to days.

• 3x Higher Engineering Efficiency
  With intuitive automation and smart routing, engineering teams can achieve expert-level results with fewer resources.

• Up to 30% Reduction in Wire Length
  Leveraging AI-driven heuristics, FlexGen optimizes interconnects to reduce wire length, improving power efficiency and silicon area utilization.

• Multi-Architecture Support
  FlexGen connects seamlessly to a wide variety of processor architectures including Arm, RISC-V, and x86, while supporting all major industry protocols.

Proven Market Impact

Arteris isn’t a newcomer to the industry. Its technologies are already deeply embedded across the global semiconductor ecosystem:

• 3.7+ billion SoCs have shipped using Arteris IP

• Trusted by 200+ active customers

• Supports 850+ SoC design starts

• Powers solutions for 9 of the top 10 semiconductor companies

• Maintains an impressive 90%+ customer retention rate

These statistics underscore the reliability and impact of Arteris products on real-world semiconductor applications.

Behind the Innovation: Arteris' Strategic Vision

The presentation also touched on broader semiconductor market trends, including the growing influence of artificial intelligence, the shift to chiplet architectures, and the increasing need for cache-coherent and non-coherent interconnect IP.

While Arteris' Ncore targets the coherent side, FlexGen, FlexNoC, and FlexWay address non-coherent requirements — where much of the complexity lies. Notably, NoCs now represent 10–13% of silicon area in a typical chip, making optimization in this space critical for performance and power targets.

Arteris holds over 80 patents in Smart NoC technology, solidifying its leadership in the domain. Their tools are not just about automation — they are about bringing expert-level design capabilities to every engineering team, regardless of size or experience level.

The Future of SoC Design is Smart, Scalable, and Automated

In an industry driven by speed, innovation, and efficiency, Arteris Smart NoC IP stands out as a critical enabler for next-generation chips. From AI workloads to automotive systems, and from data centers to consumer electronics, the applications are vast, and the demands are intense.

FlexGen is not just another IP block — it's a transformative approach to solving one of the most critical bottlenecks in chip design today.

Final Thoughts

As semiconductor designs continue to scale in complexity, the shift toward intelligent design automation is not just logical — it’s necessary. Arteris, with its Smart NoC IP and FlexGen platform, is leading this evolution.

For engineers, architects, and product managers looking to future-proof their SoC development, exploring Arteris' offerings may well be the next strategic move.

Source - Semiwiki