Just doing a little revision. I think this press release from 26 June 2019 is worth revisiting.
First, the fact that we have a definitive agreement with Socionext to develop Akida, and the fact that Socionext have a foundry agreement with TSMC may well have helped BRN hold its place in the queue when the automakers got shuffled down the list, having made the mistake of cancelling their tickets.
There are a couple of salient points which I glossed over/forgot about after first reading.
Socionext is providing the IP blocks for the peripherals and for the ARM processor. We are buying these off-the-shelf from Socionext. This clarifies company statements that we are only licensing the NPUs and data converter in the Akida IP licensing process.
Socionext consider the edge as a strategic application segment for their business - so maybe they will be licensing Akida IP for applications other than their SynQuacer edge server. (Now who else was talking about edge servers the other day?)
https://brainchipinc.com/brainchip-and-socionext-sign-a-definitive-agreement-to-develop-the-akida-neuromorphic-system-on-chip-brainchip-260619/
BrainChip and Socionext Sign a Definitive Agreement to Develop the Akida™ Neuromorphic System-on-Chip
Company Secures Funding for Product Development
Agreement with Socionext, a world-class developer of complex ASICs
Foundry partner of TSMC, a world leading foundry for wafer supply
Capital raise secured, to support initial product development (CST Capital)
Significant customer interest in BrainChip’s ground breaking SNN Technology
SAN FRANCISCO, June 26, 2019
(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN), the leading AI Edge company, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement with Socionext America Inc (SNA) for product development and manufacturing of its Akida Neuromorphic System-on-Chip (NSoC).
This agreement marks a major milestone for bringing the Akida NSoC to market.
Socionext Inc. (SNI), headquartered in Shin-Yokohama, Japan, is the combination of the former Fujitsu and Panasonic System-on-Chip (SoC) businesses. According to IHS, Socionext is the world’s second largest ASIC design and development house. SNA, the American division of SNI, is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
This joint program pairs Socionext’s wide variety of engineering disciplines and decades of ASIC design experience with BrainChip’s proven AI engineering teams in Aliso Viejo, California and Toulouse, France.
...
Socionext will provide turn-key ASIC services to BrainChip for the Akida product, including intellectual property (IP) blocks for the external interfaces, the CPU Complex for internal control and data pre-processing, place and route of the integrated circuit, IP verification, final logic design, as well as managing wafer fabrication, assembly and test operations. Wafers will be provided by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC), a world leader in semiconductor technology and wafer fabrication on its competitive and cost effective 28nm CMOS logic process.
“We are excited to join BrainChip in the design, development and introduction of Akida,” said Noriaki Kubo, Corporate Executive Vice President of Socionext. “Bringing artificial intelligence to edge applications is a major industry development and a strategic application segment for Socionext. Socionext provides suppliers such as BrainChip with a large engineering solutions platform, ranging from integrated circuit design through final test and assembly, to bring high quality products to market efficiently.”
“We are extremely pleased to work with Socionext, one of the world’s leading SoC development and manufacturing teams,” said Louis DiNardo, CEO of BrainChip. “With the firm backing by such a preeminent partner, we are confident we will be supplying the world’s first complete AI Edge network solution.”
(20min delay)