MOUNTAIN VIEW and SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 29, 2017 – AImotive (www.aimotive.com) today announced its much anticipated, AI-optimized hardware IP is available to global chip manufacturers for license. aiWare, built from the ground up for running neural networks, is up to 20 times more power efficient than other leading AI acceleration hardware solutions on the market. VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. (www.verisilicon.com), a Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS®) company, will be the first to integrate aiWare into a chip design,and the aiWare-based test chips will be fabricated on the GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) 22FDX® semiconductor process (www.globalfoundries.com).
AImotive develops a full stack technology solution and the most powerful Artificial Intelligence software for the automotive industry, designed to provide self-driving vehicles better safety, improved comfort and increased productivity. AImotive built aiWare to address the growing need for hardware accelerators optimized specifically for neural networks. aiWare is a power efficient, high-performance neural network hardware IP for automotive embedded solutions, helping chip companies build the optimal hardware to support the performance needs of an AI-driven autonomous driving software. The teams at AImotive and VeriSilicon have a long-standing partnership; aiWare will serve as the core of the demonstration chips designed by VeriSilicon, as the company brings its own silicon expertise to the final product.
“VeriSilicon has a long history of developing cutting edge semiconductor products and we are honored to partner with AImotive on its groundbreaking AI hardware accelerator,” said Wayne Dai, VeriSilicon Chairman, President and CEO. “We are convinced that developing this chip using an advanced process node such as GF 22FDX is a perfect match for the aiWare IP and our leadership position in 22FDX silicon development makes this a natural fit for us.”
The test chips will be manufactured using GF’s 22FDX® process technology, which employs a 22nm FD-SOI transistor architecture to deliver the industry’s best combination of performance, power, and area for a new era of connected intelligent systems.
“The combination of AI with real-time vision processing is a directional shift for autonomous vehicles,” said Alain Mutricy, senior vice president of product management at GF. “With its on-demand performance boost capabilities, our 22FDX process is an ideal platform for power-sensitive AI applications. We are committed to supporting next-generation applications like aiWare that will help shape the AI market of the future, including automotive applications.”
AImotive has been a vocal and ongoing proponent of open collaboration in order to bring autonomous driving to market faster. The company was the first to develop a neural network data exchange standard called NNEF (Neural Network Exchange Format) with the support of the Khronos Group, a global consortium dedicated to standardizing hardware access interfaces. The NNEF standard creates a more accessible and universal AI development ecosystem by making communication simpler and more reliable between AI toolsets and inference engines. The aiWare-based test chip represents the first to meet the new NNEF standard.
“Three components are critical for turning self-driving cars into a mass product: power-efficient hardware, optimized algorithms and a solid regulatory environment,” said Laszlo Kishonti, founder and CEO of AImotive. “We have gathered experience at delivering the first two elements; now it is up to legislators to catch up with the industry.”
AImotive, VeriSilicon and GF plan to debut the new aiWare-based chip in early 2018. In the meantime, AImotive will offer an FPGA evaluation kit for global semiconductor companies that further demonstrates the value of aiWare.
About AImotive
AImotive is the leading provider of camera-first, AI powered, Level 5 autonomous driving technology. AImotive uses cameras as primary sensors to mimic the visual capabilities of human drivers, resulting in technology that can readily scale and helping to make autonomous driving a reality around the world. The company’s full stack suite of products includes aiDrive, aiKit and aiWare.
AImotive is at the forefront of open collaboration for autonomous driving, partnering with the Khronos Group to develop the Neural Network Exchange Format (NNEF), the first neural network data exchange standard to make communication easier and more reliable between AI toolsets and inference engines.
AImotive is a privately held company, headquartered in Budapest with offices in Mountain View, California and Helsinki, Finland. Follow @AImotive on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or learn more at www.aAimotive.com.
About VeriSilicon
VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. (VeriSilicon) is a Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS®) company that provides comprehensive System on a Chip (SoC) and System in a Package (SiP) solutions for a wide range of end markets including mobile internet devices, datacenters, the Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, industrial, and medical electronics. Our machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are well positioned to address the movement to “intelligent” devices. SiPaaS provides our customers a substantial head start in the semiconductor design and development process and allows the customers to focus efforts on core competency with differentiating features. Our end-to-end semiconductor turnkey services can take a design from concept to a completed, tested and packaged semiconductor chip in record time. The breadth and flexibility of our SiPaaS solutions make them performance effective and cost efficient alternatives for a variety of customer types, including both emerging and established semiconductor companies, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs), and large internet/cloud platform companies.
VeriSilicon’s camera-in, display/video out pixel processing platform includes high-fidelity ISP, embedded Vision Image Processor (VIP) with machine learning acceleration, Vivante® low power GPU and high performance GPGPU, Hantro® ultra high definition video codec, and rich featured display controller, which work seamlessly together to deliver best PPA (Performance, Power, Area). In addition, based on our ZSP® (digital signal processor) technologies, HD audio/voice platforms and multi-band/multi-mode wireless baseband platforms including BLE, Wi-Fi, NB-IoT, and 5G provide scalable architectures for both ultra-low power and extremely high performance applications. Our value-added mixed signal IP portfolio enables energy efficient Natural User Interface (NUI) platforms for voice, gesture and touch.
Founded in 2001 and head-quartered in Shanghai, China, VeriSilicon has over 600 employees with five R&D centers and nine sales offices worldwide.
About GLOBALFOUNDRIES
GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a leading full-service semiconductor foundry providing a unique combination of design, development, and fabrication services to some of the world’s most inspired technology companies. With a global manufacturing footprint spanning three continents, GF makes possible the technologies and systems that transform industries and give customers the power to shape their markets. GF is owned by Mubadala Development Company. For more information, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com.
