Here's an extract from a recent press release from Samsung that further indicates that they believe that neuromorphic processors have a bright future!
Samsung Electronics to Strengthen its Neural Processing Capabilities for Future AI Applicationshttps://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-to-strengthen-its-neural-processing-capabilities-for-future-ai-applications- "The System LSI Business and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology — Samsung’s R&D arm — together
plan to extend and evolve the company’s current NPU research into novel AI hardware technologies such as neuromorphic processors that aim to operate at the level of a human brain."
And then there are these extracts from a recent news article:
Samsung’s system chip head says M&As needed for non-memory goalhttp://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190618000644- Top memory chip provider announces plan to solely develop NPUs,
neuromorphic processors to realize on-device AI- “
It’s impossible to expect organic growth to become the top player in this field,” Kang said. “
We will consider both small and big M&As to secure talent.”
- Samsung’s Montreal AI Lab in Canada and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in Korea will work together on the
development of NPU technologies that will further evolve into neuromorphic processor technologies, which will support level 4 autonomous driving solutions, naturally speaking personal AI assistant programs, mixed reality technologies and humanoids.
Is it within the realm of possibility that BrainChip is working with Samsung under a NDA? Samsung was listed as one of the companies that BrainChip may already be in contact with:
BrainChip - Update for the March 2019 Quarter - 29 April 2019https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20190429/pdf/444mfb95vrsn0r.pdfAkida Engagement Plan- The Company has established early discussions with vision sensor manufacturers, automobile manufacturers for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV).
- It has also commenced discussions with Tier-One module suppliers to the automotive industry in Europe and North America, Vision Guided Robotics, Surveillance Camera, Smart Transducer and Vision Sensor manufacturers.
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Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Module Manufacturers and Sensor suppliers (some of whom the Company is already in contact with) in these markets include:
--- ADAS/AV: Valeo, Continental, Aptiv, General Motors, Ford, Micron,
Samsung--- Vision Guided Robotics: HiKvision, iRobot, IRIS,
Samsung, Micron
--- Drones: DJI, Safran, Boeing
--- Surveillance cameras: HiKvision, Dauha, Axis
--- Smart Transducers and Vision Sensors: Sensata, On Semiconductor, Sony, ST Microelectronics,
Samsung- The Company also has
ongoing dialogue and potential use cases in laptop computers as well as cellphones that could create intellectual property for integration into their own Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). These use cases are important because they have the
potential to provide additional revenue from Akida IP in parallel with, but separate from revenues from the NSoC release.
(20min delay)