Brainchip sets date for SoC
- Autor:Ella Cai
- Solte em:2018-09-10
Brainchip, the Australian spiking neural networks (SNN) specialist, is looking at sampling its first SoC incorporating its Akida SNN IP in Q3 2019.
The chip will probably be fabricated on a 28nm process, said Brainchip svp Bob Beachler in London last week.
Asked by EW if the company needed to raise more money to make the chip – it currently has $11 million cash – Beachler replied: “I don’t think we need to raise more money – the mask cost should be around $1 million.”
Brainchip has raised $30 million to date since it was founded in 2011.
Brainchip is operating in a crowded field – Intel, Google’s TPU, Nvidia, Samsung, ThinkForce, ThinCI, REX Computing, Graphcore, Cambricon, Cerebras, SpiNNaker and Horizon Robotics are among a host of neural chip contenders.
Brainchip is modest about the intellect of its chip – putting it somewhere between a fruit fly and a bee – but says it has targeted a $10 price point for the chip and that it will perform comparably to chips costing fifty times more.
The company is not on a mission to simulate the human brain. “We want to build components that are useful in the industry,” said Brainchild founder and CTO, Peter van der Made (pictured), “we are a commercial company. Akida has tremendous throughput with low power, it’s math-lite, it has no MACs and its neurons and synapses are optimised for silicon space and power consumption.”
It is intended that the SoC will be used either as a stand-alone processor or as a co-processor for acceleration.
In Q4 2018, the Akida IP will be realised in a Xilinx FPGA.
The chip will probably be fabricated on a 28nm process, said Brainchip svp Bob Beachler in London last week.
Asked by EW if the company needed to raise more money to make the chip – it currently has $11 million cash – Beachler replied: “I don’t think we need to raise more money – the mask cost should be around $1 million.”
Brainchip has raised $30 million to date since it was founded in 2011.
Brainchip is operating in a crowded field – Intel, Google’s TPU, Nvidia, Samsung, ThinkForce, ThinCI, REX Computing, Graphcore, Cambricon, Cerebras, SpiNNaker and Horizon Robotics are among a host of neural chip contenders.
Brainchip is modest about the intellect of its chip – putting it somewhere between a fruit fly and a bee – but says it has targeted a $10 price point for the chip and that it will perform comparably to chips costing fifty times more.
The company is not on a mission to simulate the human brain. “We want to build components that are useful in the industry,” said Brainchild founder and CTO, Peter van der Made (pictured), “we are a commercial company. Akida has tremendous throughput with low power, it’s math-lite, it has no MACs and its neurons and synapses are optimised for silicon space and power consumption.”
It is intended that the SoC will be used either as a stand-alone processor or as a co-processor for acceleration.
In Q4 2018, the Akida IP will be realised in a Xilinx FPGA.
