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 is predicated 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 complicated (and costly) packaging that silicon chips require to guard their brittle nature from the stresses induced by flexing. As a substitute, IGZO transistors could 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’ll be able to’t precisely flap it round – watching it curl up and maintain computing was nonetheless a reasonably spectacular feat.
Do not anticipate blistering efficiency, nevertheless. With solely 12,600 logic gates, the Flex-RV prototype achieves a most clock pace 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 good for powering disposable medical gadgets and a brand new frontier of versatile, body-conforming devices, corresponding to improved well being wearables, tender robotics, and even brain-computer interfaces. Moreover, by leveraging the free, open-source RISC-V instruction set, Pragmatic has prevented 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 different by a number of share factors, however total, it dealt with flexing like a champ. This marks a big improve over earlier bendable chips, which may solely be examined whereas resting on their unique wafers.
This is not the primary time somebody has tried to create a bendable PCB. In August, an enterprising engineer gave the traditional Arduino Uno board a versatile makeover, calling it the “Flexduino.” That venture included inflexible elements onto a versatile PCB; Flex-RV takes it a step additional – the built-in circuit on the board may also twist and contort.
The complete particulars had been printed within the journal Nature on September 25.
