Mercedes-Benz announced a reference design collaboration with Athos Silicon, a specialized semiconductor company established by former engineers at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. (MBRDNA).
This partnership accelerates the adoption and scaling of advanced chiplet architecture originally researched at MBRDNA while supporting next-generation autonomous driving platforms across the industry. The initiative underscores Mercedes-Benz’s leadership in Silicon Valley innovation and strategic ecosystem development.
Mercedes-Benz’s forward-thinking strategy began with pioneering R&D efforts starting in 2020 at MBRDNA, where teams developed breakthrough chiplet technology for autonomous driving computing. Recognizing the technology’s broad applications beyond automotive use cases, Mercedes-Benz facilitated the formation of Athos Silicon as an independent entity to maximize the innovation’s industry impact.
Mercedes-Benz contributes substantial intellectual property while enabling the technology to scale with dedicated capital from broader ecosystem partnerships. Athos Silicon’s modular mSoC™ platform delivers adaptable performance scaling, accelerated development cycles, and safety-by-design principles that position Mercedes-Benz at the forefront of the autonomous computing revolution.
“Mercedes-Benz continuously explores technologies that can advance safety, performance and automated driving. Open chiplet approaches—such as UCIe—show promise for future high-performance compute architectures. Athos Silicon, an independent company with roots in research initiated at Mercedes-Benz in 2020, will pursue its own path to develop these ideas for broader industry use.” Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Chief Technology Officer.
Mercedes-Benz has consistently pushed boundaries in automotive computing and built on this foundation of innovation. Since joining the UCIe Consortium in 2023 as the first automotive OEM member, the company has actively shaped industry standards for chiplet technology.
The Athos Silicon collaboration further positions Mercedes-Benz as co-creator of next-generation high-performance computing standards. These standards promise to revolutionize autonomous vehicle possibilities for years ahead and create the blueprint for tomorrow’s vehicles.
