European chip designer SiPearl has delivered its first batch of Rhea1 processor samples to supercomputing client Bull. Built on a TSMC 6 nanometer process, the processor packs 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores to power Europe's first exascale supercomputer. Successful hardware validation will mark the first major commercial revenue milestone for the startup.
Bull has started installing the Rhea1 silicon into its BullSequana XH3000 platform. Under the supply agreement between both companies, these processor partitions will head directly into the JUPITER supercomputer located in Germany. JUPITER represents the continent's flagship high performance computing installation. If system testing proceeds without issue, SiPearl will secure its first substantial revenue from the project.
On the architectural side, Rhea1 relies on Arm designs tailored specifically for heavy scientific calculation. Each of the 80 Neoverse V1 cores features 2 separate 256 bit Scalable Vector Extension units to process mathematical workloads. TSMC manufactures the die using its 6 nanometer fabrication node, balancing dense logic scaling with energy efficiency.
Memory bandwidth is where the Rhea1 package stands out. The design integrates 4 separate 16GB High Bandwidth Memory stacks directly on the package alongside 4 DDR5 memory channels supporting 2 DIMMs per channel. This combination gives the chip rapid access to massive data pools during intense computational tasks.
System expansion is handled through 104 PCIe Gen5 lanes. This generous lane count gives server builders ample room to connect accelerator cards, high speed network adapters, and fast storage arrays directly to the processor without bandwidth bottlenecks.
