AMD has partnered with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay to boost semiconductor startups in India. This collaboration will see AMD offering grants to startups incubated at IIT-B that are focused on developing energy-efficient Spiking Neural Network (SNN) chips. These startups are tasked with finding ways to significantly cut down the energy consumption associated with traditional neural networks.
Jaya Jagadish, Country Head of AMD India, commented on the initiative, stating that AMD aims to lower energy costs and enhance efficiency across its product range. The company plans to achieve a 30-fold improvement in energy efficiency for its processors and accelerators used in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI training by 2025. AMD is committed to outpacing the overall industry’s energy efficiency improvements over the past five years and actively collaborates with industry and academic institutions to foster innovation.
Shaji Varghese, CEO of SINE-IIT Bombay, emphasized the importance of nurturing startups in India’s semiconductor sector, particularly given the long design cycles and high entry costs. SINE aims to create strong, product-focused semiconductor startups by addressing existing industry gaps.
The first grant under this partnership has been awarded to Numelo Technologies, which is developing SNN chips utilizing ultralow power quantum tunneling on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Prof. Udayan Ganguly, Director of Numelo Tech, highlighted their focus on extending battery life, enhancing data privacy, and creating a versatile architecture for sound, image, and video recognition. He noted the value of mentorship from senior engineers at AMD, which they believe adds significant benefit beyond just financial support.
This partnership is part of AMD’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts, which emphasize the importance of quality education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the promotion of scientific research.
