April 28, 2023: CMC Microsystems, Canada’s leading hardware technology facilitator, and Untether AI®, the leader in energy-centric AI inference for acceleration, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on providing Untether AI’s acceleration solutions to CMC customers and partners.
Untether AI, based in Toronto, Canada, has developed an approach called “at-memory” computing, which provides improved accuracy and unparalleled efficiency for diverse neural networks such as vision, natural language processing, and recommendation engines.
Untether AI was founded to radically rethink how computation for machine learning is accomplished. In current architectures, 90 percent of the energy for AI workloads is consumed by data movement, transferring the weights and activations between external memory, on-chip caches, and finally to the computing element itself. By focusing on the needs for energy centric AI compute, Untether AI provides highly performant and energy efficient hardware, like the runAI family of devices and tsunAImi® family of PCIe cards, and enabling imAIgine® software that supports a wide variety of AI workloads. The runAI family of devices operates up to 502 TeraOperations per second in its “sport” mode. It may also be configured for maximum efficiency, offering 8 TOPs per watt in “eco” mode. The tsunAImi family can support up to 2 PetaOps of AI inference at an efficiency of 8 TOPs per watt.
CMC has a track record of delivering leading edge, high-performance computing services over the cloud, training, and technical support for Edge AI and (Internet of Things) IoT applications. Through the Virtual Incubator Environment (VIE), CMC also has strong connections to Canadian emerging firms and startups developing AI applications.
For Gordon Harling, President and CEO of CMC, Untether AI’s technology is a key addition to CMC’s offering. “Untether AI’s technology architecture is a game changer that will allow us to deliver high-performance computing services more efficiently. It also gives our clients in the AI space a powerful tool delivering performance that would normally be out of reach.”
“For innovators and researchers looking for industry-leading resources to design, make, and test their ideas, CMC is the leader in Canada” said Arun Iyengar, CEO of Untether AI. “Untether AI is delighted to collaborate with CMC to help them deliver their services to spark more innovation among entrepreneurs and researchers in the AI space.
Under the MOU, CMC will deploy the tsunAImi accelerator card in its data center for users and train and support those users on Untether AI technologies. Untether AI will provide training and technical support on the tsunAmi card and the imAIgine® software development kit (SDK) to CMC.
Untether AI will be presenting its technologies at CMC’s Accelerating AI Workshop taking place on May 4, 2023. For more information, please contact Dr. Yassine Hariri, Senior Staff Scientist, AI, Machine Learning, and Embedded Systems, hariri@cmc.ca.
About Untether AI
Untether AI® provides energy-centric AI inference acceleration from the edge to the cloud, supporting any type of neural network model. With its at-memory compute architecture, Untether AI has solved the data movement bottleneck that costs energy and performance in traditional CPUs and GPUs, resulting in high-performance, low-latency neural network inference acceleration without sacrificing accuracy. Untether AI embodies its technology in runAI® and speedAI® devices, tsunAImi® acceleration cards, and its imAIgine® Software Development Kit. Founded in Toronto in 2018, Untether AI is funded by CPPIB, GM Ventures, Intel Capital, Radical Ventures, and Tracker Capital. More information can be found at www.untether.ai.
About CMC Microsystems:
CMC Microsystems is a not-for-profit organization accelerating research and innovation in advanced technologies. Founded in 1984, CMC lowers barriers to technology adoption by creating and sharing platform technologies including access to state-of-the-art design, manufacturing, and testing capabilities. CMC enables research, development, and the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP), benefiting a network of over 10,000 academic participants and 1,000 companies developing innovations in advanced technologies. The key values of CMC are: benefits to Canada, a role as an honest broker, and research excellence.
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