Alif Semiconductor Launches Ensemble MCUs with Ethos-U85
January 23, 2025
News
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Alif Semiconductor introduced its second generation of its Ensemble family including the E4, E6, and E8 Ensemble MCUs and fusion processors leveraging the latest neural processing unit (NPU) from Arm, the Ethos -U85, and designed for enhanced generative AI workloads.
Reza Kazerounian, President of Alif Semiconductor, commented “Alif’s original Ensemble controllers in full production today remain at the forefront of the market for AI/ML performance, on-chip resources, energy efficiency, and small footprint. We specifically chose Arm’s standardized Ethos NPU IP because of its widely supported broad ecosystem in addition to superior performance and efficiency. Alif’s second-generation controllers will dial up benefits again enabling developers to create products that previously they could only wish for, unleashing endless new use cases that will enter our everyday lives.”
The devices include on-chip memory featuring a pair of Arm Cortex-M55 CPUs coupled to Ethos-U85 NPUs, Alif’s aiPM granular power management, a hardware-isolated secure enclave, and various avenues to stream image, sound, and sensor data. According to the press release, Ensemble devices execute inferencing for neural networks using only its internal memory with optional utilization of external memory if needed.
Updates:
- Wider Internal Memory Bus Topology
- Dual MIPI-CSI Camera Interfaces
- Hardware Image Signal Processor (200 Frames Per Second)
- Pair of Interfaces to External Memory (800MBytes/s)
- Options for SRAM Data Retention
“As edge AI deployments continue to grow at pace, we need to deliver smarter, faster, and more secure processing on the devices closest to the data source. With the world’s first implementation of the Ethos-U85 in an endpoint AI MCU, Alif is enabling on-device generative AI, which is particularly valuable in voice and vision applications. OEMs can now embed AI into battery-powered applications, illustrating why edge AI is being built on the energy-efficient Arm compute platform,” ends Paul Williamson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IoT Line of Business at ARM.
For more information, visit alifsemi.com/.