lowRISC announces Andrew Wallace as new Chair of the Board of Directors. CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - lowRISC C.I.C., the open-source silicon engineering organisation and host of the OpenTitan(R) project (the world's first commercial grade open-source silicon root-of-trust), today announced the appointment of Andrew Wallace as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. Andrew succeeds Sir Andy Hopper, who is stepping down after several years of distinguished service as independent Chair. Under Sir Andy Hopper's leadership, lowRISC(R) experienced a period of remarkable growth, solidifying its position as a global leader in collaborative, open-source silicon engineering, culminating in the announcement that new Chromebooks are now shipping with OpenTitan and the launch of the COSMIC project delivering an open-source CHERI Secure Enclave. The organisation extends its deepest gratitude to Sir Andy for his exceptional guidance, strategic vision, and steadfast commitment to advancing the transparent, secure silicon ecosystem. His tenure saw the successful commercial delivery of the OpenTitan project and the establishment of a robust coalition of enterprise and academic partners. "Sir Andy's contributions to lowRISC cannot be overstated. His wealth of experience and steady leadership have been instrumental in getting us to where we are today," said Javier Orensanz Martinez, CEO of lowRISC. "As we enter our next phase of growth and commercial adoption, we are thrilled to welcome Andrew Wallace as our new Chair. Andrew brings a phenomenal track record of scaling deep-tech organizations and driving global commercial strategy, making him the ideal leader to guide our board forward." Welcoming Andrew Wallace Andrew Wallace brings over 35 years of executive experience across the enterprise IT, electronics, telecommunications, and photonics sectors. With a strong focus on addressing emerging markets and deep-tech innovation, he has held numerous global commercial, marketing, and operational roles ranging from agile startups to billion-euro enterprises. After larger high-growth roles, Andrew's most recent executive role was as CEO of Pyreos through its growth and sale to Broadcom. He has recently held several non-executive roles across the deep-tech and startup landscape, particularly in photonic quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography (PQC). His extensive global leadership experience positions him perfectly to help lowRISC navigate the complexities of the global semiconductor industry. "I am delighted to join lowRISC as Chair during such a pivotal time for the semiconductor and hardware security industries," said Andrew Wallace. "With the drive of its founders and of Sir Andy, the lowRISC team has established open-source silicon in core high volume security applications. Now several new major opportunities are open to us. The open-source silicon model that lowRISC is championing is fundamentally changing how the industry builds secure, transparent silicon, increasing quality and engineering efficiency across the industry. I look forward to working with the board, the executive team, and our growing ecosystem of partners to accelerate our impact and scale our mission globally." About lowRISC Founded in 2014 at the University of Cambridge, lowRISC is a not-for-profit company that provides a neutral home for collaborative engineering to develop and maintain open-source silicon designs and tools for the long term. The lowRISC structure is designed to host, manage, and govern open-source projects, including the OpenTitan Root of Trust, ensuring their long-term health, security, and commercial viability. Media Contact: [email protected] Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. TheTechOutlook.com takes no editorial responsibility for the same.

COSMIC Project develops open-source CHERI Secure Enclave. COSMIC Project launches world's first open-source CHERI-enabled Secure Enclave, enhancing hardware security for IoT, mobile, and data center applications. lowRISC CIC and Capabilities Limited have officially launched the COSMIC Project, a groundbreaking initiative backed by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and InnovateUK, to develop the world's first commercial-quality, open-source CHERI-enabled 64-bit Secure Enclave for application-class system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The COSMIC Project is designed to provide CHERI memory safety, hardware-enforced compartmentalisation, and formal verification, addressing the growing security requirements of modern SoCs. Secure Enclaves are isolated subsystems within SoCs that protect sensitive data and code, ensuring security even if the main operating system or other parts of the chip are compromised. Such technology is widely used across IoT devices, mobile phones, and data centers. "This project reflects our commitment to security by openness, not obscurity," said Javier Orensanz Martinez, CEO at lowRISC. "COSMIC is supported not only by commercial partners like Google and Rivos, but also by UK government funding, accelerating open-source silicon security." The COSMIC design leverages the CVA6-CHERI processor from Capabilities Limited, based on the CVA6 core from the OpenHW Foundation, combined with principles from OpenTitan, the first open-source silicon root of trust. CVA6-CHERI enhances performance, enables Linux-style operating systems, and implements hardware-based memory-safety features from the forthcoming RISC-V 'Y' extension (CHERI). The processor will also feature a dual-core lockstep configuration to further improve security. The project is planned to run until March 2028, with the first stage completing in March 2026. COSMIC will integrate large-scale software stacks such as Linux and draw inspiration from security-focused designs like seL4, ensuring the final design meets high-security requirements. Formal verification is central to COSMIC's approach. A team led by Professor Tom Melham at Oxford University, in collaboration with lowRISC, will apply rigorous formal verification methods, following prior success with the CHERIoT-Ibex Core developed by Microsoft, to ensure CVA6-CHERI strictly conforms to its instruction set architecture (ISA). "CHERI represents the state-of-the-art in hardware-enabled memory safety," said Professor Robert Watson, Director at Capabilities Limited. "We are proud that CVA6-CHERI has been selected for COSMIC, advancing secure, open-source processor technology." Mike Eftimakis, Founding Director of the CHERI Alliance, added: "As cyber threats increase and regulations tighten, manufacturers need to embed robust security in their products. COSMIC provides a strong foundation for future secure silicon platforms."

Today at the CHERI Alliance's Cherry Blossoms 2025 conference at St. John's College in Cambridge, U.K., the not-for-profit company lowRISC announced the availability of its CHERI-based, open-source Suburts chip design repository on GitHub, enabling developers to build their own memory-safe, CHERIoT-Ibex based secure microcontrollers to market.