Year: 2024
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Microchip Nixes FPGA to Make Its First 64-Bit Microprocessors
Initially a supplier of low-cost 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), Microchip Technology has since evolved its portfolio and grown by acquisition. Still emphasizing low-cost chips, it now offers quad-core, 64-bit microprocessors (MPUs). The new PIC64GX processors integrate four RISC-V CPUs and peripherals such as DRAM, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, and PCIe controllers. A fifth CPU monitors the chip…
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Will InspireSemi’s 1,536-Core RISC-V Processor Inspire Customers?
Every few years someone realizes that many small CPUs on a chip have many times the peak performance of a single small CPU. Unfortunately for the companies that pursue this idea, this approach is rarely (if ever) better than fewer, more powerful cores or specialized engines. Nonetheless, Inspire Semiconductor continues down this extreme-multicore path and…
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Etched Sohu Commits Transformers to Silicon
“If transformers go away…we’ll be hosed,” Etched CEO Gavin Uberti told Bloomberg in March. Last week Etched received $120 million to develop its Sohu NPU, promising a chip 10× faster than the Nvidia Blackwell GB200 and 20× faster than a Hopper H100 on Llama-3 70B and other transformer-based AI models. Articles online have raised the…
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Ceva NeuPro Nano Brings AI to Low-Cost SoCs
The Ceva NeuPro Nano is a licensable NPU for low-cost consumer and industrial chips requiring accelerated AI processing.
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SiFive Improves Power, Performance, and Interfacing
SiFive is updating its Essential cores. This licensable RISC-V family targets control functions, and the fastest models perform similarly to Arm’s Cortex-R82 and Cortex-A72. Already offering compact, low-cost CPUs, cores with wide vector units, and high-throughput application-processing CPUs, SiFive has no need to expand its portfolio. However, periodic refreshes of existing designs can fix bugs,…
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TikTok to Try to Turn from AI Titan Nvidia
TikTok parent ByteDance is developing an AI accelerator (NPU) according to Reuters. Working with ASIC supplier Broadcom to circumvent restrictions intended to keep advanced technology from Chinese companies, such as TSMC’s process technology and Nvidia’s fastest GPUs. Even without the restrictions, large companies with AI expertise have sought to reduce their dependence on merchant chip…