HOW THE RENESAS BRAINCHIP IP DEAL MAY HAVE BEEN INITIATED
Brainchip were likely first introduced / recommended to Renesas back in 2017 at the Mizuho Securities Silicon Valley AI Day, by Mizuho Finance (a company with $1.8 trillion dollars in assets, mind you). They have acted as financial advisor to Renesas on a number of transactions over the past few years, most recently facilitating financing for their aqcuisition in Feb 2021, of Dialog Semiconductor - a company with a “low-power” and “IoT” focus.
WHY DID RENESAS ACQUIRE DIALOG?
To understand this let’s join a few more dots...
Dot 1.
if we go back to Feb 2020 we find that Dialog acquired a Californian chip maker Adesto Technologies for $500 million.
Adesto, founded in 2006, provides Arm-based System-on-Chips (SoCs), edge routers, network interfaces and resistive RAM technology memory, amongst other products that have a heavy focus on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Source:
Dot 2.
Shortly afterward in May 2020, we find Dialog launched the first Bluetooth and WiFi combo module for low power IoT devices i.e.
This two-in-one module is comprised of two groundbreaking SoCs, the newly announced DA16200 and the SmartBond™ TINY DA14531, to provide best-in-class, low-power Wi-Fi and BLE for customers and further broaden Dialog’s IoT connectivity portfolio.
The DA16200 SoC was purpose built for battery-powered IoT applications, including connected door locks, thermostats, security cameras and other devices that require an “always on” Wi-Fi connection, but may be only used sporadically.
So it appears Renesas purchased Dialog for $8b approx, essentially to create a leadership position in IoT market. Why did they do this, what’s the payoff look like?
SMARTBOND TINY
Module is a Bluetooth low energy solution that will power the next 1 billion IoT through ease of use.
Other applications that SmartBond’s product specs page mentions it’s suited to include: Fitness trackers, Sport watches, Toys, Consumer appliances, Home automation, Industrial automation, Voice-controlled remote controls, Access control, Game controllers and headsets.
ABI RESEARCH SUGGEST 16B BLUETOOTH DEVICES TO BE SHIPPED ANNUALLY IN 2023 THAT WILL REQUIRE MESH NETWORKING - WHICH WILL UNDOUBTEDLY NEED TO BE SMART.
... “Bluetooth Low Energy has witnessed tremendous growth since its introduction in 2010 because continued technical enhancements have ensured that the technology can take advantage of opportunities across an ever-increasing number of verticals and use cases,” said Andrew Zignani, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. “BLE’s ubiquitous support in mobile devices, combined with its ability to supportmesh networking, beacon functionality, and most recently, centimeter level location accuracy with the introduction of Bluetooth 5.1 and radio direction finding (RDF), is enabling BLE to be increasingly leveraged within smart consumer devices, larger scale home and commercial building automation environments, and RTLS deployments with more stringent accuracy requirements,” says Zignani.
And with 50 Billion IoT devices all using different communications Mesh Networking can only be achieved through AI.
Semi-engineering sums up the advantages Brainchip‘s SNN’s offer to communications devices using Bluetooth and how AI in mesh networking architecture supports low power IoT.
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