sureCore Enables AI with Ultra-Low Power Memory IP

We all know that AI is becoming pervasive in a wide array of products to make them smarter, safer and feature rich. Just look at the announcements from the recent CES show in Las Vegas to see some examples. These AI workloads demand a lot of compute power. Fueling this trend is the need for significant arrays of embedded memory on chip, as close to the compute units as possible. This is a way to reduce latency, but it also brings a lot of power challenges and packaging/cooling headaches. sureCore is well-known for its ultra-low power memory solutions and the company recently announced a significant addition to its arsenal to address the vexing embedded memory problem for AI systems. Let’s see how sureCore enables AI with ultra-low power memory IP.

The New sureCore Solution

sureCore is no stranger to exotic and cutting-edge applications. You can learn about what the company is doing to enable quantum computing here. The new offering from sureCore is called PowerMiser AI. The inferencing power required by new applications needs massively parallel processing arrays. These technologies increase power consumption and thermal load, making packaging and cooling more challenging.

SureCore modified its PowerMiser IP by optimizing it to reduce dynamic power and  leveraging power efficiencies offered by FinFET technology. The result is PowerMiser AI, a new product that reduces thermal impact and addresses the performance demanded by AI workloads.

Digging a bit deeper, embedded SRAM can cause substantial issues for workloads such as pattern matching. As a result, memory can contribute as much as 50% of the power on a large AI-enabled chip. sureCore estimates that using PowerMiser AI can reduce dynamic power by up to 50%. This reduces thermal load, so heat sinks or other cooling approaches are either not needed or significantly reduced. The result is increased system reliability and lower cost. 

To Learn More

Beyond memory IP, sureCore offers a custom memory development service called sureFIT.  Using this service, designers can get memory subsystems optimized for the target power, performance and area (PPA) of the project. In addition to custom solutions, sureCore has a range of power-optimized standard products that deliver market-leading power profiles. These include Everon, PowerMiser, and MiniMiser. Further details can be found at on sureCore’s product page.

Power savings are available at both the nominal operating voltage and at low to near threshold voltages, providing many choices. sureCore memories offer single rail low voltage operation that allows direct logic connection, which eases system-level design.

There was a recent press release announcing PowerMiser AI. You can read the full release here.

In that release, Paul Wells, sureCore’s CEO went into some detail about what drove the development of the new product:

“Our typical customer has been using our ultra-low power SRAM IP in battery-powered applications to provide a longer operational life between recharges. The surge in AI augmentation means that whole new areas for our low power memory solutions have appeared in new and exciting areas that are not constrained by battery life and can be mains powered or are even in the automotive space.

Power consumption is still a critical factor for these applications, but the constraining factor is starting to become heat dissipation and potential thermal damage. In order to keep product form factors under control and obviate the need for forced cooling so as to prevent overheating, new low power solutions are needed. Our recent announcements about working on ultra-low power memory IP for use in cryostats in the quantum computing arena, where heat generation by chips has to be minimised, has resulted in enquiries from companies who also need to keep AI chips operating within temperature boundaries albeit at the other end of the scale.”

And that’s how sureCore enables AI with ultra-low power memory IP.