A new Oregon-based startup, AheadComputing, is making waves with a bold claim: it’s developing the “biggest, baddest CPU in the world.” However, instead of the industry trend of increasing clock speed or core count, the company is betting on IPC—instructions per clock—as the path to next-generation performance.
Founded by four Intel veterans whose experience spans from the 386 era to modern Core chips, AheadComputing is leaning into its heritage while moving beyond Intel’s troubled legacy. The hiring of CPU design legend Jim Keller to its board gave its ambitions more credibility.
AheadComputing is a processor core design company founded in July 2024 to design and license high-performance 64-bit RISC-V processor cores. The open-source RISC-V architecture offers a low-cost, contemporary alternative to the pervasive x86 and Arm architectures. RISC-V is already successful in embedded markets, but AheadComputing believes there is potential in disrupting desktop and mobile computing.
Co-founder Jonathan Pearce contends that the true future of CPU performance is IPC, not simply additional cores. With multi-core scaling approaching diminishing returns in non-parallel workloads, it is increasingly important to increase the amount that each core can accomplish per clock. CEO Debbie Marr feels that both the x86 and Arm ecosystems are getting tense and feels that RISC-V is the long-term replacement.
AheadComputing is early-stage and fabless (similar to AMD and Nvidia), but the company asserts that it will soon show leadership in performance per watt and performance per dollar. Its focus on IPC is also in line with recent trends, considering the Apple M4 chip, which dominates consumer CPUs in IPC despite being clocked lower.
It may be a long way before AheadComputing chips become mainstream on devices, but the unconventional specialization of the startup, as well as the pedigree of its founders, make it a company to follow. Should it succeed, it may follow the same path as Nuvia, which was bought by Qualcomm and is now behind the most powerful Snapdragon PC processors.
