Giorgos Nikiforos recently joined the company to lead the new Codasip Design Center in Greece. From the reasons for choosing Greece to his motivations and the focus of the new team, we asked him to tell us more about it.
GIORGOS, TELL US WHAT CONVINCED YOU TO JOIN CODASIP?
When I first heard of Codasip, it did not take me long to realize that the company is in a great place strategically and delivering strong products that the market needs right now. Beyond the quality processor IP we are building on RISC-V – which is becoming the inevitable architecture computing is gravitating towards – there is Codasip Studio, a unique processor design automation toolset that enables our customers to optimize their designs and differentiate in a unique way. I have always considered that automation is fundamental. It is great to be able to address a challenge with a solution, but if you can instead build a future proof, scalable solution which will make future challenges easier to solve, that is a game changer. And Codasip does just that with Codasip Studio.
After a couple of weeks working with the team, I am really convinced that we are developing something unique with a huge potential, and this would not be possible without the people of Codasip. Building such a technology and being successful is really down to the people and the company culture. I have seen levels of motivation, excellence, and proactivity that are required to drive innovation and an overall “never settle” mindset I strongly believe in.
YOU MENTIONED CODASIP STUDIO, HOW DO YOU SEE THE POTENTIAL OF SUCH A TECHNOLOGY?
The semiconductor industry today needs innovation choice. For our customers and future customers, the potential is huge and the applications limitless. The more I talk with people, the more ideas and possibilities I see. For our engineering teams, it is also an amazing opportunity to work on something unique. We build standard, best-quality RISC-V processor IP that the market needs today. But for those seeking differentiation, we provide the tool that will help them create unique products they can commercialize to their competitive advantage. By automating the generation of all the tools required to build a custom product – from simulators to synthesis tools, verification environment and compiler – Codasip is democratizing processor design like no one else.
And the potential of Studio is not a secret. Simply look at how Codasip is growing. We are expanding across Europe, more and more talented engineers are joining, familiar names who have been in the industry for many years in various companies are joining. The technology is here, the market is ripe, and there is a great future ahead for Codasip.
THERE AREN’T MANY SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES IN GREECE, WHY THIS CHOICE?
The European opportunity for developers and for the industry is growing rapidly. Codasip is a European company, and all our design centers are in Europe. We already had offices in the UK, Spain, Germany, France, etc. The reasons for choosing Greece are quite simple.
The country counts several excellent universities (including the University of Crete, the University of Patras, the Democritus University of Thrace, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, or the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and a research center in Crete (FORTH-ICS-CARV) for computer architecture. Greek engineers are talented but the lack of opportunities in the country is real. Like many others, I left Greece more than 10 years ago to find a job overseas. However, Greece is a great place to live and work and many engineers would rather stay here than move away.
Having a company like Codasip that believes in the potential of the country, recognizes the quality of its universities and wants to build on its engineers to extend its leadership in Europe and globally is unique. The new design center in Greece will add significant value for the company.
CODASIP LAUNCHED ITS UNIVERSITY PROGRAM IN MARCH 2022, HOW DOES THIS TIE IN?
The Codasip University Program is great in a growth-stage company like ours. The idea behind it is that we need a new generation of processor engineers to solve tomorrow’s technology challenges: in security, artificial intelligence, and many other domain specific applications. The Codasip University Program supports research faculties, creating bilateral ties between academic institutions and industry: an ecosystem which will spur innovation and product development.
As we start working with some great universities in Greece, there will be possibilities for partnership.
WHAT WILL BE THE FOCUS OF THE CODASIP GREECE DESIGN CENTER?
We are going to build a team of talented engineers who will work together to grow as a group but also as individuals, to design and deliver the technology that addresses industry needs today and tomorrow. We really want to inject the Codasip culture into everything we do, whilst also adding our Greek DNA.
In terms of roles we are hiring to fill: building quality technology and IP requires designers, verification engineers, modeling, architects and more. We are looking for personalities and mindsets across all levels. We are at the beginning of the hiring process, we have job offers on our website and candidates should make contact and submit their applications.
