Switzerland hosts 'CERN of semiconductor research'

Summary

Universities use open-source technology to design chips Keystone / Laurent Gillieron Switzerland is fostering an open-source movement that frees universities and chip designers from the commercial shackles of monopolistic companies. Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector English (US) English (British) Generated with artificial intelligence. This content was published on March 12, 2026 - 09:08 The frenetic rise of artificial intelligence has put hefty new demands on the semiconductor industry. Supercomputers and data centres are hungry for more advanced specialised chips. This has given a boost to universities, like the Swiss federal institutes of technology, which are working to design next generation semiconductors. But the research and production of these chips is hampered by restrictions on what’s called ‘Instruction Set Architecture’ (ISA). ISA are essentially translators that determine how chips interact with software. And the most common ISAs are controlled by the American company Intel and the British firm ARM. The companies charge fees to work within their ISA systems and restrict how they can be adapted for new chip designs. More More Research frontiers How semiconductors are made This content was published on Aug 4, 2025 Making semiconductor chips for computers, machinery, transport and other devices is a costly and a lengthy process. How exactly is it done? Read more: How semiconductors are made The answer to this dilemma is an open-source ISA called RISC-V, which was developed at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010. The technology was transferred to a non-profit foundation in 2015, which moved from the United States to Zurich in 2020 as the RISC-V International Association. ‘Freedom to operate’ in semiconductor research The Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich was a founding member of the association in 2015. The open-source alternative “creates an infrastructure to innovate,” according to Luca Benini, p...