ACE-Echo connects our communication–AI chip research with application development. Venus is the programmable RISC-V processor. AURA is the architecture and programming foundation. ACE-Echo is the open platform used to develop applications for that hardware.

Architecture, silicon and software

AURA brings together Venus Language, the Zoozve compiler and mathematical libraries. Its dataflow approach connects task-level computation with the movement of data between tasks.

AURA groups the programming language, compiler and mathematical libraries. These are components, not sequential pipeline stages.
AURA groups the programming language, compiler and mathematical libraries. These are components, not sequential pipeline stages.

Venus combines programmable Tiles, a Scheduler and a digital front end. Our research explores communication processing and AI workloads on this shared hardware foundation.

Venus hardware components: Tile, Scheduler and digital front end.
Venus hardware components: Tile, Scheduler and digital front end.

Our first-generation chip has completed tape-out and achieved first light. Bring-up and real-signal NR cell search are documented in the silicon announcement. That milestone is distinct from the validation scope of the open simulator.

Build applications with 1.0

ACE-Echo 1.0 provides a usable Gem5-based simulator and an initial Agent-assisted framework. Developers can write Venus applications, check outputs and quickly estimate their approximate performance. Custom Venus LLVM and other host tools remain separate prerequisites.

  1. 01DefineInputs, outputs and reference
  2. 02DevelopVenus C tasks + BAS DAG
  3. 03SimulateGem5 on a selected backend
  4. 04EvaluateOutput agreement + timing
The ACE-Echo 1.0 software development loop. Hardware and RTL validation are separate steps.

Start with the installation guide, then explore the programming model and supported scope.

From assistance to intent

Available in the release branch

1.0

You develop. Echo assists.

Develop applications for Venus with a usable Gem5 simulator, approximate cycle-level performance evaluation and an initial Agent-assisted development framework.

Get started with 1.0 ↗

Planned direction

2.0

Your intent. An application for Venus.

Our goal is for an Agent to turn your application intent into an implementation deployable on Venus, including generation, iteration and validation. This is a future platform goal; no release date is announced here.

The roadmap replaces earlier beta dates and feature forecasts. ACE-Echo software versions and Venus hardware generations are separate version names.

Built for collaboration

Researchers can explore hardware-aware algorithms; application developers can compare implementations before hardware evaluation. Contributions to examples, documentation and reproducible experiments help extend the shared platform.

Meet the team · Contributing organizations · Contact ACE Lab