Athos Silicon: Multiple System-on-Chip for Safe Autonomy

Building functional safety into compute for autonomy

Athos Silicon, a spin-out from Mercedes-Benz, is addressing one of the most pressing challenges in autonomous systems: how to eliminate the single point of failure in compute architectures. Unlike traditional monolithic processors that can collapse if a single component fails, Athos Silicon’s Multiple System-on-Chip (mSoC) integrates redundancy directly into silicon.

The result is a functionally safe Processor platform designed to meet ISO 26262 and other standards required for safety-critical applications.

Why safety-first design is essential

Conventional computing platforms – with a CPU, GPU, and NPU working together – were never built for Automotive safety. If a processor crashes or a transient error occurs, the entire system may fail. In a consumer PC this means a reboot; in a self-driving vehicle or industrial robot, it could mean disaster.

Athos Silicon has rethought this architecture from the ground up. By focusing on functional safety as a primary design constraint, its mSoC avoids the patchwork redundancy of external systems and instead bakes resilience into the hardware itself.

The mSoC architecture explained

Athos Silicon’s mSoC integrates multiple chiplets into one package, each containing CPUs, controllers, and memory. Instead of a single supervisor chip that itself could fail, the mSoC operates through a voting mechanism — what Athos calls a “silicon democracy.”

Each chiplet executes tasks in parallel, and their outputs are compared in real time. If one diverges from the others, it is overruled and reset. This ensures continuous operation without interruption and prevents cascading system failures.

By embedding this redundancy, Athos Silicon enables High Reliability computing suitable for Level 3 and Level 4 autonomy while maintaining predictable performance.

Power efficiency for EVs and robotics

Safety is not the only benefit. In electric vehicles, compute power directly affects range. Athos Silicon highlights that every 100 watts of compute load can reduce EV range by as much as 15 miles. By designing a chiplet system optimised for Low Power efficiency, the mSoC reduces unnecessary energy consumption and makes autonomy more practical for battery-powered platforms.

From Mercedes-Benz R&D to startup scale

The technology behind Athos Silicon was incubated within Mercedes-Benz before the company was spun out to bring the platform to the wider market. Its first silicon, codenamed Polaris, is designed to deliver Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous capability in a footprint comparable to current Level 2 hardware.

Working with chiplet-packaging partners, Athos Silicon has accelerated validation and plans to deliver silicon to early customers soon. With no competitors currently offering integrated voting redundancy in a chiplet-based compute platform, Athos Silicon is carving out a unique position in the AI ecosystem.

Applications beyond cars

While autonomous driving is the most visible use case, Athos Silicon’s architecture also applies to Robotics, avionics, and even Medical devices where safety and reliability are paramount. Any system requiring certifiable, functionally safe compute stands to benefit.

By combining chiplet redundancy, real-time voting, and safety-first design, Athos Silicon’s Multiple System-on-Chip may prove to be the missing hardware foundation for truly certifiable autonomy.