2020 BRN Discussion, page-386

Hi MADX,
We discussed this on the 2020 BRN thread on 23/1/2020.

Also on the same playbill:

Spiking neural networks enabling massively parallel, low-power & low-latency computationPRESENTER: Bruno PAINGVP Strategic partnerships, North America LETI
TYPES OF ITEMS TO BE DEMONSTRATED: CEA-Leti will introduce ‘SPIRIT’, the world-first fully integrated neural network on-chip with nonvolatile resistive memory. So far, memories were placed outside of chips leading to high energy consumption. With this co- integration in the same die of analog spiking neurons and resistivesynapses leveraging resistive random access memory cells (RRAM), CEA-Leti enables the push fo rdistributed computing devices to support artificial intelligence at the edge. These spiking neuralnetworks are designed by CEA-Leti and the RRAM are fabricated in a post-processat CEA-Leti onCMOS-based wafers.
RELEVANCE TO TINYML:SPIRIT allows massively parallel, low-power and low latency computation. It is a perfect candidate for embedded classification applications required in Lidars or IoT devices.
The technology also finds applications in event-based sensors packed with rich temporal content.

This uses ReRAM their US787660 (dating from 2004) uses co-linear phase change current to change a material fron crystalline to amorphous to change resistance. Perviously done by transverse current.ReRAM has come up for discussion before but this is the first application I have seen (not that I've been looking).

I think Tech or one of our other champoin posters may have discussed ReRAM with PvdM.
[ReRAM is a RAM which uses phase change material to cahnge the resistance of a resistive element to act as a memory element.]

Tech was already on it with his record-breaking response:

I contacted Peter about an hour ago, he replied a few minutesago..honestly, what a top bloke.

He is currently back in the US....working hard as usual.

His email come across with confidence in my opinion...youmake up your own mind.

I asked him 3 questions...these are the key parts, which Ithought I'd share....

"we are progressing well with the Akida chip. I believe we have anunique product that stands out in the market and is well ahead of everyoneelse, building upon the experience that we have gained in building the SNAP64and Accelerator designs"

"Resistive RAM is an analog technologythat stores information in a resistive element by passing a voltage pulsethrough it. By passing voltage pulses in one or the other direction the devicecan be read, written or erased. This is still an experimental technique. Sincewe are building a commercial product, I stay very far away from anything thatis experimental. Our devices have to be able to be produced in a standard CMOSprocess, and we cannot take any risk with any unproven, new, experimentaltechnologies. That is fine for academics at universities but we need to makemoney. Our neural technology is proven, although very different from whateveryone else is doing".

"With a small number of staff, about 1/3^rd what others have, and a small budget we have done miracles. Others outside the company have used the Akida development environment to do smell and taste classification, among a number of other projects."