BrainChip (ASX:BRN, OTCQX:BRCHF) is an Australia-based technology company, founded in 2004 by Peter Van Der Made,[1] that specializes in developing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) hardware.[2] The company's primary products are the MetaTF development environment, which allows the training and deployment of spiking neural networks (SNN), and the AKD1000 neuromorphic processor, a hardware implementation of their spiking neural network system. BrainChip's technology is based on a neuromorphic computing architecture, which attempts to mimic the way the human brain works. The company is a part of Intel Foundry Services and Arm AI partnership.[3][4]

BrainChip Holdings Ltd.
Company typePublic
IndustryArtificial Intelligence hardware and software provider Semiconductor Design & Manufacturing
Founded2004
FounderPeter van der Made
Headquarters,
Australia
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Sean Hehir (CEO)

Peter van der Made (Founder and CTO, Executive Director)

Anil Mankar (Co-founder, Chief Development Officer)

Ken Scarince (Chief Financial Officer)

Nandan Nayampally (Chief Marketing Officer)

Rob Telson (Vice President Ecosystems & Partnerships)

Steve Thorne (Vice President of Worldwide Sales)

Professor Adam Osseiran (Chairman of the SAB)

Professor Barry Marshall, NL (Member of the SAB)

Professor Alan Harvey (Member of the SAB)
Websitehttps://brainchip.com/

History

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Australian mining company Aziana acquired BrainChip in March 2015.[5] Later, via a reverse merger of the now dormant Aziana[6] in September 2015 BrainChip was put on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and van der Made started commercializing his original idea for artificial intelligence processor hardware. In 2016, the company appointed former Exar CEO Louis Di Nardo as CEO; Van Der Made then took the position of CTO.[7] In October 2021, the company announced that it was taking orders for its Akida AI Processor Development Kits,[8][9] and in January 2022, that it was taking orders for its Akida AI Processor PCIe boards.[10] In April 2022, BrainChip partnered with NVISO to provide collaboration with applications and technologies.[11] In November 2022, BrainChip added the Rochester Institute of Technology to its University AI accelerator program.[12] The next month, BrainChip was a part of Intel Foundry Services.[4] In January 2023, Edge Impulse announced support for BrainChip's AKD processor.[13]

MetaTF

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The MetaTF software is designed to work with a variety of image, video, and sensor data, and is intended to be implemented in a range of applications, including security, surveillance, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation. The software uses Python to create spiking neural networks (or convert other neural networks to SNNs) for use on the AKD processor hardware. The software is also capable of SNN deployment on normal processors.[14]

The AKD processor

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The Akida 1000 processor[15] is an event-based neural processing device with 1.2 million artificial neurons and 10 billion artificial synapses. Utilizing event-based possessing, it analyzes essential inputs at specific points. Results are stored in the on-chip memory units.[16]

 
AKD1000 processor block diagram
 
BrainChip NPU Mesh

The processor contains 80 nodes that communicate over a mesh network. Each node consists of four either convolutional or fully connected Neural Processing Units (NPUs), coupled with individual memory units. Akida runs an entire neural network executing all neuron layers in parallel. The design elements are meant to allow inference and incremental learning on edge devices with lower power consumption.[17][18]

On January 29, 2023, BrainChip announced that it has completed the design of its AKD1500 reference chip.[19] On March 6, 2023, BrainChip announced the second generation of its Akida platform. BrainChip added support for 8-bit weights and activations, Vision Transformer (ViT) engine, and hardware support for a Temporal Event-Based Neural Net (TENN).[20][21] On March 12, 2023, BrainChip announced that the Akida processor family integrates with the Arm® Cortex®-M85 processor. [22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Peter Van Der Made". Business News. Archived from the original on 2023-01-11. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  2. ^ Clarke, Peter (December 18, 2017). "BrainChip founder to focus on 'Akida' chip". eeNews Analog. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  3. ^ "BrainChip Joins Intel Foundry Services to Advance Neuromorphic AI at the Edge" (Press release). BrainChip. 2022-12-12. Archived from the original on 2023-01-11.
  4. ^ a b "BrainChip Joins Intel Foundry Services to Advance Neuromorphic AI at the Edge" (Press release). BrainChip. 2022-12-12. Retrieved 2023-01-15 – via Yahoo! Finance.
  5. ^ "Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) Announcement - HOA Signed to Acquire BrainChip" (Press release). Aziana. Archived from the original on 2023-01-11. Retrieved 2023-01-11 – via The Motley Fool Australia.
  6. ^ "BrainChip makes strong ASX debut". The West Australian. 2015-09-22. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  7. ^ "BrainChip appoints former Exar CEO to lead company". eeNews Analog. 2016-10-04. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  8. ^ "BrainChip Begins Taking Orders of Akida AI Processor Development Kits" (Press release). 21 October 2021. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  9. ^ "BrainChip Launches Event-Domain AI Inference Dev Kits". eeNews Analog. 21 October 2021.
  10. ^ "First mini PCIexpress board with spiking neural network chip". Electronics-Lab.com. January 19, 2022. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  11. ^ "BrainChip and NVISO Partner on Human Behavioral Analytics in Automotive and Edge AI Devices" (Press release). NVISO, BrainChip. 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2023-01-15 – via Business Wire.
  12. ^ "BrainChip Adds Rochester Institute of Technology to its University AI Accelerator Program" (Press release). BrainChip. 22 November 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-15 – via Yahoo! Finance.
  13. ^ "Edge Impulse and BrainChip Partner to Further AI Development with Support for the Akida platform" (Press release). Edge Impulse. Retrieved 2023-01-15 – via PR Newswire.
  14. ^ "MetaTF development environment to simplify deep learning". Mitigbt Blog. September 1, 2021. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  15. ^ Aufranc, Jean-Luc (January 21, 2022). "$499 BrainChip AKD1000 PCIe board enables AI inference and training at the edge". CNX Software. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  16. ^ "SiFive and BrainChip Partner to Demo IP Compatibility". eeNews Analog. 20 April 2022.
  17. ^ NASA SBIR 2020-I Solicitation | H6.22-4509 - CNN RNN Processor | Proposal Summary Archived 2022-01-21 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Pascu, Luana (February 13, 2020). "BrainChip showcases Akida neural processing capabilities, opens developer environment". biometricupdate.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  19. ^ Jadhav, Abhishek (2023-03-04). "BrainChip announces successfully taped out AKD1500 chip on GlobalFoundries' 22nm FD-SOI process". Electronics-Lab.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  20. ^ Freund, Karl. "BrainChip Readies 2nd Gen Platform For Power-Efficient Edge AI". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  21. ^ "BrainChip Introduces Second-Generation Akida Platform". BrainChip. 2023-03-06. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  22. ^ "BrainChip integrates Akida with Arm Cortex-M85 Processor, Unlocking AI Capabilities for Edge Devices". Yahoo Finance. 2023-03-12. Retrieved 2023-05-17.


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