SME snapshot In the latest in our series on red-hot deep-tech companies, Martin Croome, vice president of marketing, gives us an introduction to ultralow-power GAP processors from GreenWaves Technologies.
GreenWaves
Enabling state-of-the-art machine learning and digital signal processing on energy-constrained devices COMPANY: GreenWaves MAIN BUSINESS: semiconductor design, systems-on-chips LOCATION: Grenoble, France WEBSITE:
greenwaves-technologies.com Located in the micro-and nano-electronics hotspot of Grenoble, GreenWaves is a fabless semiconductor startup that was founded in 2014. GreenWaves designs and brings to
capture, analyse, classify and act on a fusion of rich data sources
market advanced ultra-low-power artificial
such images, sounds, radar signatures and vibrations.
intelligence (AI) and digital signal processing (DSP) processors for energy-constrained applications. Energy-
GreenWaves’ second generation GAP9 processor enables a
constrained devices generally have to last for years on one
market-leading audio experience for hearable devices through
battery – as in the case of IoT sensors – or have a very small
ultra-low-power implementation of features such as neural-
battery, as we see with hearable or wearable products.
network-steered, ultra-low-latency, active noise cancellation, neural-network-based noise reduction and 3D sound in hearable
GreenWaves’ chief technology officer, Eric Flammand, was
devices such as true wireless stereo earbuds.
one of the founders of the Parallel Ultra Low Power (PULP) Platform that was started as a joint effort between the Integrated
GreenWaves’ GAP9 processor has been designed from the ground
Systems Laboratory (IIS) of ETH Zürich and the Energy-efficient
up to address a blend of classic DSP, ultra-low latency, sample-by-
Embedded Systems (EEES) group of the University of Bologna
sample time-domain DSP and neural-network workloads while
in 2013 to explore new and efficient architectures for ultra-low-
preserving a high degree of flexibility and programmability.
power processing. GreenWaves collaborates with PULP members
While GAP9 shares some system components with traditional
on high-performance, low-power architectures – such as the PULP
microcontroller units (MCUs), its architecture is quite unique,
cluster – and transforms the results into real products. As reported
enabling a revolution in the performance of extremely energy-
in HiPEACinfo 58, the company’s feedback has been invaluable in
constrained devices.
bringing PULP’s technology to a higher level of maturity. We have had customers developing on simulations and fieldPULP itself uses processor cores that implement the open-source
programmable gate array (FPGA) versions of GAP9 for the past
RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). GreenWaves is a key
two years and on the real chip since February. Our customers have
contributor to the PULP project and has staff on two committees
found the GAP9 hearable platform exceptionally power efficient
of RISC-V International . It has been one of the first companies to
for voice and music processing. It has given them headroom
focus on the ‘very edge’ and to leverage an open-source RISC-V
in both energy and processing power that they use to develop
core at large commercial scale.
innovative new features in their products with no compromise in area, cost or energy. Our development tools enable software
GreenWaves’ first product, the 55nm GAP8 processor, was one
and hardware developers to productively harness the power of
of the very first commercially available RISC-V processors and
their processors using familiar neural-network and mathematical
artificial intelligence (AI) microcontrollers. It allows massive
computing software. As one customer told us, ‘we do in weeks
deployment of low-cost, battery-operated intelligent devices that
with GAP9 what we do with other platforms in months’. HiPEACINFO 66 33
