Chip tech startup SiFive releases products targeted at automotive market

Silicon Valley startup SiFive Inc launched three new products aimed at the automotive market, which is emerging as one of the hottest areas for chip makers with electric and self-driving cars expected to boost the number of chips needed.

The new chip designs launched are the E6-A series for digital control applications like steering, S7-A for so-called “safety islands” that act as a failsafe for other critical applications, and X280-A to manage data from image sensors and do machine learning work, including for autonomous driving.

“Where you’ll see us going is from these targeted compute chips … to arrays of processors that will be available over the coming 12 to 24 months,” said SiFive CEO Patrick Little.