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Imec and KU Leuven present energy-efficient AI chip for robots

Nieke Roos
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Researchers at Imec and KU Leuven have designed the first-ever chip that combines a digital and analog coprocessor to accelerate computations for artificial intelligence. The Digital and Analog Accelerator (Diana) automatically performs different types of calculations in the most energy-efficient way. It can be used to allow robots to efficiently determine the objects in their field of view and how to grab them.

More and more systems interact with their surroundings. For privacy reasons, the processing of environmental images, sounds and other data is best done on the devices themselves. Unfortunately, this requires a lot of computing power, which can quickly drain the battery. Today, some vehicles and smartphones are already equipped with a digital processor specifically designed to speed up calculations. However, to enable high-performance augmented-reality glasses, an autonomous drone or a smart robot, a new generation of AI chips is needed that’s much more energy efficient.

Two years ago, Imec developed a new chip architecture in which calculations are performed directly in computer memory through analog technology. This analog accelerator makes it possible to perform most of the operations ten to one hundred times more energy efficient than in a digital accelerator. For other operations, the calculation precision and programmability of a digital accelerator are better suited.

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