Switzerland hosts 'CERN of semiconductor research'

Switzerland hosts ‘CERN of semiconductor research’

Universities use open-source technology to design chips Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Switzerland is fostering an open-source movement that frees universities and chip designers from the commercial shackles of monopolistic companies.

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The frenetic rise of artificial intelligence has put hefty new demands on the semiconductor industry. Supercomputers and data centres are hungry for more advanced specialised chips.

This has given a boost to universities, like the Swiss federal institutes of technology, which are working to design next generation semiconductors. But the research and production of these chips is hampered by restrictions on what’s called ‘Instruction Set Architecture’ (ISA).

ISA are essentially translators that determine how chips interact with software. And the most common ISAs are controlled by the American company Intel and the British firm ARM. The companies charge fees to work within their ISA systems and restrict how they can be adapted for new chip designs.

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