AI chip maker SiMa releases development platform and edge plug-in boards

SiMa Technologies Inc., the maker of a purpose-built machine studying system-on-a-chip, stated it has begun transport its SiMa.ai Palette software program platform for full ML stack growth together with two plug-in processing playing cards. It stated the event platform helps the deployment of any machine studying workflow on the edge with out compromising efficiency.

Based mostly on 16-nanometer know-how, the MLSoCs embrace pc imaginative and prescient processors for picture pre- and post-processing together with devoted machine studying acceleration and high-performance utility processors. The corporate says its {hardware} achieves 10 instances higher efficiency than general-purpose chips with decrease energy consumption. It’s initially specializing in pc imaginative and prescient purposes.

SiMa is one among a growing list of startups which are constructing {hardware} particularly for the event and deployment of synthetic intelligence purposes utilizing machine studying and neural networks. They’ve attracted many of the $1.8 billion enterprise capitalists poured into chip startups final 12 months, chasing a market that Allied Market Research expects to develop from $8 billion in 2020 to just about $195 billion by 2030. SiMa has raised $177 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.

The SiMa.ai Palette is described as a set of scalable instruments for machine studying growth that ship excessive efficiency and push-button operation. Its GStreamer workflows use superior scripting and automation on optimized neural community fashions, together with pre- and post-processing capabilities and pipelines that let the deployment of a single container to massive numbers of edge units concurrently.

The brand new {hardware} features a PCI Categorical half-height, half-length plug-in board and twin M.2 manufacturing boards containing purpose-built silicon for low-power edge makes use of. M.2 is an AI-specific high-performance parallel computation machine. Clients can use the board designs to speed up deployment and to develop their very own customized units, the corporate stated.

The boards embrace four-core Arm A65 processors, an H.264-compatible video encoder/decoder, a machine studying accelerator that delivers as much as 50 trillion operations per second of efficiency and a pc imaginative and prescient processor that can be utilized with all widespread machine studying frameworks, together with TensorFlow, PyTorch, ONNX and MXNe.

The M.2 boards are priced at $599 and the PCIe boards at $749 in 10,000-unit portions. Extra variations are being constructed to be used in industrial temperature eventualities.

The Palette software program is offered in alpha take a look at on an early entry foundation. The total-scale deployment will begin within the second quarter.

Picture: SiMa