Mercedes-Benz said it has entered into a reference design collaboration with Athos Silicon, a semiconductor startup founded by former engineers from Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA), to accelerate the adoption and scaling of chiplet technology for autonomous driving platforms.
The initiative builds on research work started in 2020 at MBRDNA, where teams developed chiplet architectures designed to improve computing performance for autonomous vehicles. Mercedes-Benz said the partnership underscores its leadership in Silicon Valley innovation and ecosystem development, noting that Athos Silicon was established as an independent company to expand the technology’s reach across industries.
“Mercedes-Benz continuously explores technologies that can advance safety, performance and automated driving. Open chiplet approaches—such as UCIe—show promise for future high-performance compute architectures,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Chief Technology Officer. “Athos Silicon, an independent company with roots in research initiated at Mercedes-Benz in 2020, will pursue its own path to develop these ideas for broader industry use.”
Mercedes-Benz said it has contributed intellectual property and facilitated the spin-off of Athos Silicon to maximize the technology’s industry impact. The company added that Athos Silicon’s modular mSoC™ platform enables adaptable performance scaling, shorter development cycles, and “safety-by-design” principles, with potential applications extending to robotics, drones and aerospace.
Since joining the UCIe™ Consortium in 2023 as the first automotive manufacturer member, Mercedes-Benz has sought to shape chiplet technology standards that it believes will underpin next-generation high-performance computing. The Athos Silicon collaboration, the automaker said, further positions it as a co-creator of industry standards that could transform autonomous driving and serve as a blueprint for future vehicles.