IoT special feature

Launched in 2007 in Patras, Greece, Think Silicon is a provider of ultralow-power graphics intellectual property (IP) for the wearables and internet of things (IoT) markets. HiPEAC caught up with Chief Scientific Officer Georgios Keramidas at the 2022 HiPEAC conference in Budapest to find out more about the company.

Low-power, high-quality graphics made in the EU

What’s the Think Silicon story so far?

Think Silicon has over 15 years’ experience designing applications in ultra-low-power 2D and 3D, video and display, as well as machine-accelerated applications for the microcontroller market. A major milestone was the acquisition of Think Silicon by Applied Materials two and a half years ago.

The target market of Think Silicon is ultra-low-power embedded devices that are equipped with a display – think of wearable devices, home appliance devices, home infotainment devices, for example. In those kinds of devices, users require high-quality graphics in their interactions with the applications. On the other hand, these kinds of devices are typically battery operated. At Think Silicon, we’ve worked with our customers for many years to optimize the graphics processing units (GPUs), the hardware and the software of these devices, and we’ve managed to extend the battery life from days to weeks.

What are some of the most exciting applications powered by Think Silicon IP?

Think Silicon GPUs are highly reconfigurable GPUs and serve a wide range of applications, from graphics rendering in IoT devices – for example wearable devices, fitness trackers, health trackers – security and infotainment devices, all the way up to

Georgios Keramidas (centre) with colleagues Spyridon Garmpis and Ilias Vasileiou at the 2022 HiPEAC conference, which the company sponsored video overlaying in data centres. Our next generation of GPUs is going to include artificial intelligence (AI) functionality for edge AI devices.

In the last quarter of 2021, more than 15 million of the smart watches sold on the market contained our GPU technology and, according to our projections, our technology will be in 15 different smart watches in the next year.

How have European Union (EU)-funded projects like HiPEAC helped Think Silicon grow?

Think Silicon has been a member of the HiPEAC network for many years, and through HiPEAC we managed to build collaborations with companies such as Codeplay and Samsung. We worked with these companies as part of two European-funded projects, LPGPU and LPGPU2. Another strategic project for us was the TETRAMAX Innovation Action, which helped us better understand the European community in the area of customized and low-power computing.

What are the company’s plans for the future?

We will be expanding our product line targeting the extended graphics and AI (machine-learning) market. The NEOX™ architecture supports a new concept of a smart GPU architecture used in MCU-driven system-on-chips (SoCs) by lightweight graphics and machine learning frameworks. The NEOX™ IP-Series can be customized for graphics, machine learning, vision / video processing and general-purpose compute, and it helps offload workloads from the main central processing unit (CPU). The new offering supports the flexibility to use high-quality graphics and machine-learning features at the same time, if desired, and configure end-point devices, such as next-generation smart-/ fitness-/ health watches, augmented reality (AR) eyewear, video, set-top box (STB) entertainment, and smart displays in point-ofsale / point-of-interaction devices.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Think Silicon website https://www.think-silicon.com/ Interview with Georgios Keramidas on HiPEAC TV bit.ly/HiPEAC22_Think_Silicon