Versatile: British startup Pragmatic Semiconductor has unveiled a 32-bit microprocessor that may run machine studying fashions whereas additionally being bendable – all for beneath a greenback. Named Flex-RV, this chip relies on the open commonplace RISC-V structure and makes use of a wholly totally different materials to realize its extremely adaptable design.
That materials is known as indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), which replaces the extra typical silicon. The important thing innovation lies in avoiding the advanced (and costly) packaging that silicon chips require to guard their brittle nature from the stresses induced by flexing. As a substitute, IGZO transistors might be printed instantly onto plastic substrates at low temperatures.
Pragmatic’s demo showcases the Flex-RV being rolled up round a straw after which unfurling to proceed executing code undisturbed. Whereas the demonstrator dealt with the board with additional care – suggesting you may’t precisely flap it round – watching it curl up and hold computing was nonetheless a reasonably spectacular feat.
Do not count on blistering efficiency, nonetheless. With solely 12,600 logic gates, the Flex-RV prototype achieves a most clock velocity of 60 kHz – that is 0.00006 GHz in PC gamer phrases. Regardless of these modest efficiency numbers, the chip efficiently integrates a low-power machine studying accelerator.
Pragmatic by no means supposed the Flex-RV to coach GPT-4 fashions. Consuming lower than 6 mW of energy, this ultra-efficient chip is right for powering disposable medical units and a brand new frontier of versatile, body-conforming devices, akin to improved well being wearables, delicate robotics, and even brain-computer interfaces. Moreover, by leveraging the free, open-source RISC-V instruction set, Pragmatic has averted the expensive structure licensing charges that sometimes inflate chip prices.
In testing, the resilient processor maintained accuracy whereas bent to a 5 mm radius curve. Throughput diverse by a number of proportion factors, however general, it dealt with flexing like a champ. This marks a big improve over earlier bendable chips, which might solely be examined whereas resting on their authentic wafers.
This is not the primary time somebody has tried to create a bendable PCB. In August, an enterprising engineer gave the basic Arduino Uno board a versatile makeover, calling it the “Flexduino.” That undertaking included inflexible elements onto a versatile PCB; Flex-RV takes it a step additional – the built-in circuit on the board may twist and contort.
The complete particulars have been printed within the journal Nature on September 25.
