The manufacturing cost of the groundbreaking bendable 32-bit microprocessor is less than $1
British startup Pragmatic Semiconductor has launched a 32-bit microprocessor that can run machine learning models while also bending, all for less than a dollar. This chip, named Flex RV, is based on the open standard RISC-V architecture and uses a completely different material to achieve its highly adaptable design.
This material is called indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), which replaces more traditional silicon materials. The key to innovation lies in avoiding the complex (expensive) packaging required for silicon chips to protect their brittleness from bending stress. On the contrary, IGZO transistors can be directly printed onto plastic substrates at low temperatures.
The Pragmatic demonstration demonstrated rolling Flex RV onto a straw, then unfolding it and continuing to execute code without interference. Although the demonstrator was particularly careful when handling the circuit board because it was very fragile, watching it roll up and continue to operate was still a remarkable feat.
Don't expect it to have amazing performance either. The Flex RV prototype has only 12600 logic gates and a maximum clock frequency of 60 kHz, which is 0.00006 GHz in the words of PC gamers. Despite its low performance, the chip successfully integrates a low-power machine learning accelerator.
Pragmatic never intended to use Flex RV to train the GPT-4 model. This ultra efficient chip has a power consumption of less than 6 mW, making it ideal for providing computing power for disposable medical devices and flexible human body shaping tools such as improved health wearable devices, soft robots, and even brain computer interfaces. In addition, by utilizing the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set, Pragmatic also avoids expensive architecture licensing fees that typically raise chip costs.
In testing, this elastic processor was able to maintain accuracy even when bent to a curve with a radius of 5 millimeters. Although there is a difference of a few percentage points in throughput, overall, it performs well during the bending process. This marks a significant upgrade compared to previous bendable chips, which could only be tested on raw chips.
This is not the first time someone has attempted to make bendable printed circuit boards. In August of this year, an ambitious engineer made a flexible modification to the classic Arduino Uno circuit board and named it "Flexduino". This project integrates rigid components onto flexible PCBs, while Flex RV goes further - the integrated circuits on the circuit board can also be twisted and deformed.
The Pragmatic demonstration demonstrated rolling Flex RV onto a straw, then unfolding it and continuing to execute code without interference. Although the demonstrator was particularly careful when handling the circuit board because it was very fragile, watching it roll up and continue to operate was still a remarkable feat.
Don't expect it to have amazing performance either. The Flex RV prototype has only 12600 logic gates and a maximum clock frequency of 60 kHz, which is 0.00006 GHz in the words of PC gamers. Despite its low performance, the chip successfully integrates a low-power machine learning accelerator.
Pragmatic never intended to use Flex RV to train the GPT-4 model. This ultra efficient chip has a power consumption of less than 6 mW, making it ideal for providing computing power for disposable medical devices and flexible human body shaping tools such as improved health wearable devices, soft robots, and even brain computer interfaces. In addition, by utilizing the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set, Pragmatic also avoids expensive architecture licensing fees that typically raise chip costs.
In testing, this elastic processor was able to maintain accuracy even when bent to a curve with a radius of 5 millimeters. Although there is a difference of a few percentage points in throughput, overall, it performs well during the bending process. This marks a significant upgrade compared to previous bendable chips, which could only be tested on raw chips.
This is not the first time someone has attempted to make bendable printed circuit boards. In August of this year, an ambitious engineer made a flexible modification to the classic Arduino Uno circuit board and named it "Flexduino". This project integrates rigid components onto flexible PCBs, while Flex RV goes further - the integrated circuits on the circuit board can also be twisted and deformed.