INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The complexity and cost of packing an array of sensors and power inside a small amount of space has opened the door to a wider and wider
ideas into an actual piece of hardware.So there are some startups that are looking to address this hole by providing developers a path to
creating the customized chipsets they need to power those devices
device, such as a smartphone
Stemming from an ARM 32-bit core processor (meaning it can handle more complex and precise calculations), the first launch costs $149 for
chipsets have embedded memory, which is an increasingly common approach to try to reduce the number of trips going from the actual
processing power to where the information is stored
Those trips cost power, speed, and can restrict the scope of use cases for internet-connected devices
of templated approach, zGlue is geared toward helping developers produce a custom setup that the can implement into devices that may require
The company says it looks to help developers go from a design to a prototype in a few weeks, and then reduce the turnaround time from a
chip out into the wild, there are a few others as well
Si-Five, for example, offers developers a way to prototype custom silicon for their specific niches based on the hardware and IP the startup
The goal there is to offer both a prototype flow and the ability to graduate into a production flow, allowing developers and companies to
get products out the door that require custom silicon
Si-Five hardware is based on the RISC-V architecture, an open-source instruction set for silicon, and the company most recently raised $50.4
million.Zhang, too, said RISC-V offers some potential, especially in its own scope
the chipsets would support it, but he would not comment further
There is a blossoming ecosystem around custom silicon that looks to speed up inference on devices like cars or IoT devices, which is geared
toward reducing the space and power constraints of those chips while also running those processes much more quickly
Companies like Mythic have raised significant venture funding in order to build that kind of hardware.
