LeapMind Acquires Patents for Extremely Low Bit Quantization Technology

June 23, 2021 - LeapMind Inc. (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Soichi Matsuda), a creator of the standard in edge AI today announced that it has been granted two patents for its extremely low bit quantization technology. “Two patents we acquired are one of the fundamental technologies supporting Efficiera, an ultra-low power AI inference accelerator IP that we developed and provided.” Commented Hiroyuki Tokunaga, CTO of LeapMind and one of the inventors of patents acquired. “We continue to develop related technologies and file patent applications.”

Patent number: No. 6885645
Date of patent registration: May 17, 2021
Title of the invention: Neural network processing units, neural network processing method, and neural network processing program, neural network processing program
Patentee: LeapMind Inc.

Patent Summary
This patent relates to a technology that minimizes the accuracy degradation associated with low bit rates, which is an issue in extremely low bit quantization technology. This is one of the methods of quantizing multi-bit data such as images, in which the multi-bit elements in the data are replaced by quantized vectors instead of simply being reduced to lower bits. In particular, the use of this technology in the input layer, which is the first stage of a deep neural network, can be highly effective.

Patent number: No. 6886747
Patent registration date: May 19, 2021
Title of the invention: Neural network processing units, neural network processing method, and neural network processing program, neural network processing program
Patentee: LeapMind Inc.

Patent Summary
The quantization operation is a comparison between the input value and the threshold value. Therefore, arbitrary monotonic functions between convolution and quantization operations can eventually be converted into threshold changes, which can be performed efficiently.

About LeapMind
LeapMind Inc. was founded in 2012 with the corporate philosophy of "bringing new devices that use machine learning to the world". Total investment in LeapMind to date has reached 4.99 billion yen (as of May 2021). The company's strength is in extremely low bit quantization for compact deep learning solutions. It has a proven track record of achievement with over 150 companies, centered in manufacturing including the automobile industry. It is also developing its Efficiera semiconductor IP, based on its experience in the development of both software and hardware.

Head office: Shibuya Dogenzaka Sky Building 5F, 28-1 Maruyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0044
Representative: Soichi Matsuda, CEO
Established: December 2012
URL:https://leapmind.io/en/