Fabless semiconductor startup GreenWaves Technologies has unveiled a new IoT processor to process rich data on battery-operated devices used in AI and IoT applications.
Fabless semiconductor startup GreenWaves Technologies has unveiled a new IoT processor to process rich data on battery-operated devices used in AI and IoT applications.
The GAP8 processor enables cost-effective development, deployment and autonomous operation of intelligent sensing devices that capture, analyze, classify and act on the fusion of rich data sources such as images, sounds or vibrations.
This allows industrial and consumer product manufacturers to integrate AI and advanced classification into wireless sensing devices for image recognition, counting people and objects, machine health monitoring, home security, speech recognition, consumer robotics, wearables and smart toys.
“GAP8 differs radically from the flurry of other AI focused processors, which target either far more complex applications that can’t be battery powered, or much narrower application spaces,” said Loïc Liétar, co-founder and CEO of GreenWaves Technologies. Instead, GAP8 is positioned at the crossroads of the AI, IoT and MCU worlds.
In August 2017, GreenWaves raised 3.1 million euros to turn GAP8 into a commercial product. GreenWaves designed the system-on-chip (SOC) GAP8, which is built on the RISC-V based Parallel Ultra Low Power (PULP) computing open-source platform developed at the University of Bologna and ETH Zurich.
GAP8’s ultra-low power operation enables use cases like always-on face detection with a few mWs of power; indoor people counting / presence detection with years of autonomy; sub $15 machine vision and voice control solutions for consumer robotics; and single chip processing for 4 microphone voice capture and 10-word speaker independent keyword spotting.
“With billions of connected devices generating colossal amounts of data every second, companies are turning to edge computing to cut down on rising data management costs and speed up data processing,” said Christopher Wilder, senior analyst of Industrial Internet of Things at Moor Insights & Strategy. GreenWaves’ GAP8 meets the market’s demand for ultra-low power edge computing solutions, Wilder added.
In April 2018, GreenWaves will be rolling out a development board to enable customers to get GAP8 solutions up and running quickly.
GreenWaves’ GAP8 shows how open technology enables innovation quickly, while reducing cost compared to traditional embedded design, said Rick O’Connor, executive director of the non-profit RISC-V Foundation.