Think Silicon Spins AI Accelerator

摘要

With its new Neox products, Think Silicon targets AI-inference workloads in addition to its traditional graphics customers. Whereas the previous-generation Nema GPU core implements a proprietary instruction set, Neox is based on RISC-V. Because that ISA lacks AI and graphics functions, the Greek company developed its own nonstandard extensions for those features. But tapping the ISA lets the designers employ open-source software tools. As with Nema, Think Silicon will offer Neox as a licensable core. It's taking customer input before freezing the design and plans to begin licensing by mid-2021, so the new core is unlikely to appear in production devices before 2023.