RISC-V processor design and IP for data center and AI systems
Ventana builds high-performance RISC-V processors and IP targeting data center, automotive, and AI markets. The stack spans Cadence Palladium, SystemVerilog, and FPGA tools (Xilinx), with active work on multiple core generations (Veyron v2/v3) and pre-silicon verification—typical of a chip-design house in the execution phase. Senior and principal engineers dominate the hiring mix, signaling deep technical hiring rather than scaling sales or operations.
Ventana designs RISC-V processor cores and platform IP for data center, automotive, client, and AI applications. Founded in 2018 with a core team that previously led 64-bit Arm server processor development, the company operates a 51–200-person engineering organization based in Cupertino, CA, with hiring active in the US and India. The business centers on processor microarchitecture, verification infrastructure, and performance modeling—standard vectors for IP licensing and chip design in the RISC-V ecosystem.
Simulation and verification: Cadence Palladium, SystemVerilog, UVM. HDL: Verilog, RISC-V ISA. Prototyping: Xilinx FPGA. Development: C/C++, Python, Linux, KVM/Xen. Debugging: OpenOCD, gdb. Runtime: NGINX, MySQL, Redis.
Multi-generation RISC-V core development (Veyron v2/v3), pre-silicon verification and bring-up, FPGA prototyping with timing/performance optimization, benchmark development, and performance monitoring hardware. Current pain points: hybrid execution environment debugging, accelerating pre-silicon bring-up, power optimization, and design verification talent gaps.
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