Frontgrade Gaisler Licenses BrainChip’s Akida IP to Deploy AI Chips into Space

Laguna Hills, Calif. – December 15, 2024 – BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN, OTCQX: BRCHF, ADR: BCHPY), the world’s first commercial producer of ultra-low power, fully digital, event-based, neuromorphic AI, today announced that Frontgrade Gaisler, a leading provider of radiation-hardened microprocessors for space applications, has licensed its Akida™ IP for incorporation into space-grade, fault-tolerant system-on-chip solutions for hardware AI acceleration.   This commercial license agreement paves the path forward for AI chips to be deployed in space. The Akida neuromorphic computing solution was selected based upon providing real time data stream processing with resiliency, autonomy and accuracy at the lowest power, mass and volume.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has been leading the efforts to deploy neuromorphic computing to the furthest edge of AI. “While many fields no doubt can benefit from neuromorphic computing, one essential area is computer vision applications where current FPGA or GPU technology does not bring satisfactory results for edge deployments when considering mass, volume and power constraints,” said Laurent Hili, microelectronics and data handling engineer at the ESA. “This program has demonstrated the superiority of neuromorphic technology through several on-going activities with satellite primes and IP/components suppliers such as Frontgrade Gaisler and BrainChip.”

BrainChip’s neuromorphic AI will boost space-borne, on-board computers with superior power efficiency and inference performance while maintaining compatibility with existing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs).

“For the last 20 years, Gaisler’s space-grade microprocessors have been successfully deployed to every planet of our solar system in missions from ESA as well as most other space agencies,” said Sandi Habinc, General Manager at Frontgrade Gaisler, a Frontgrade company. “Together with BrainChip, we evaluated the Akida IP and decided that the next step of licensing it would beneficially augment our future space processors with neuromorphic AI.”

“This collaboration with Frontgrade Gaisler to license Akida IP for implementation into space SoCs represents an important step in satisfying the market demand for space-based AI deployments, turning into reality what once was considered unattainable,” said Sean Hehir, CEO of BrainChip. “We are pleased to expand on our trusted relationship with Frontgrade as they push the boundaries of space computing.”

About Frontgrade Gaisler

Frontgrade Gaisler, a Frontgrade company, is a leading provider of radiation-hardened microprocessors and IP cores for critical applications, particularly in the space industry. The company’s processors are known for their reliability, fault tolerance, and radiation tolerance, making them ideal for any space mission or other high-reliability application.

About Frontgrade

Frontgrade Technologies is the leading provider of high reliability and radiation-assured solutions for defense, space, intelligence, commercial, and civil applications. The company’s product portfolio is designed to perform in the harshest of environments and includes a complementary and integrated suite of mission-matched electronics ranging from radio frequency (RF) systems and microelectronics to motion control and power solutions. For more information, visit frontgrade.com.

About BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN, OTCQX: BRCHF, ADR: BCHPY) 

BrainChip is the worldwide leader in Edge AI on-chip processing and learning. The company’s first-to-market, fully digital, event-based AI processor, Akida™, uses neuromorphic principles to mimic the human brain, analyzing only essential sensor inputs at the point of acquisition, processing data with unparalleled efficiency, precision, and economy of energy. Akida uniquely enables Edge learning local to the chip, independent of the cloud, dramatically reducing latency while improving privacy and data security. Akida Neural processor IP, which can be integrated into SoCs on any process technology, has shown substantial benefits on today’s workloads and networks, and offers a platform for developers to create, tune and run their models using standard AI workflows like Tensorflow/Keras. In enabling effective Edge compute to be universally deployable across real world applications such as connected cars, consumer electronics, and industrial IoT, BrainChip is proving that on-chip AI, close to the sensor, is the future, for its customers’ products, as well as the planet. Explore the benefits of Essential AI at www.brainchip.com.