BrainChip, Edge Impulse Announce Partnership to Push Spiking Neural Network Tech Mainstream
The deal will, the companies hope, help foster adoption and ease development as users get to grips with BrainChip's novel tech.
BrainChip, which aims to boost edge artificial intelligence with low-power high-performance neuromorphic accelerator chips designed to mimic how the human brain operates, has announced a partnership with Edge Impulse to offer support for the former's hardware in the latter's software.
"Partnering with Edge Impulse creates a unique market solution that brings their powerful and easy to use AI/ML [Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning] application design platform unparalleled performance with BrainChip's silicon proven on-chip learning and ultra-low power IP," claims BrainChip chief marketing officer Jerome Nadel.
"We continue to look for partnerships that will advance opportunities to enable a wide array of edge AI capabilities, such as continuous learning and real-time inference. Edge Impulse is a perfect addition to our ecosystem of providers enabling next-generation technology to markets around the world."
"Organizations are understanding more and more the importance of implementing machine learning capabilities within their products to turn them into the ‘smart' devices that consumers are clamoring for," adds Zach Shelby, Edge Impulse co-founder and chief executive.
"By integrating solutions, such as deploying BrainChip's neuromorphic IP with our ML platform, developers and enterprise customers are empowered to build advanced machine learning solutions quickly and efficiently so that they are well-positioned as leaders within their respective markets."
BrainChip's Akida neuromorphic processors, which use spiking neural networks to offer considerably better performance at a lower power draw than their competition, have been in development for some time — but only launched commercially in January this year following the release of development kits built around the Raspberry Pi or an Intel-based miniature PC in 2021.
This isn't BrainChip's first partnership agreement. In early April this year, the company confirmed a deal with RISC-V pioneer SiFive to offer the former company's technology through the latter's chip design ecosystem, though neither have yet announced a product combining the two.
Neither BrainChip nor Edge Impulse have confirmed when support for the Akida processor will be added to the Edge Impulse Studio platform. More information on the Akida range is available on the BrainChip website.