Synaptics Pushes Deeper Into Edge AI with the Low-Power Astra SR-Series
New ultra-low-power edge AI parts joined by equally battery-friendly wireless connectivity chips in the "triple-combo" Veros family.
Synaptics has announced new microcontrollers targeting on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML and AI) workloads, even in battery-powered devices — along with new ultra-low-power connectivity chips to get the devices on the Internet of Things (IoT).
"We believe we are at an inflection point in edge AI where embedded developers have a unique opportunity to redefine human-machine interaction through multimodal processing and contextual awareness," says Synaptics' chief product officer and general manager for Internet of Things (IoT) processors Vikram Gupta.
"Unlocking this potential requires a new class of embedded compute silicon. The SR-series, as part of our Astra family, extends our edge AI processing roadmap and makes our proven human presence detection architecture broadly available. With intelligence optimized for various power levels, the SR-series is designed to enable the development of cognitive IoT devices that seamlessly adapt to their surroundings, from ultra-low-power always-on sensing to high-performance edge inference."
At launch, the SR-series is comprised of three models: the SR102, SR105, and SR110. All three feature a single Arm Cortex-M55 core running at up to 400MHz, featuring Arm's Helium extensions for accelerated performance when running AI and ML workloads; the SR105 adds an Arm Ethos-U55 neural coprocessor to further accelerate AI and ML performance; while the range-topping SR110 adds an Arm Cortex-M4 coprocessor on top of that.
The chip are available with up to 4MB of system memory, including always-on (AON) memory for low power modes, streaming vision and audio processing capabilities including a MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI) input and passthrough and low-power image signal processing (ISP) capabilities, and security hardware including a true random-number generator (TRNG) and accelerators for AES-256, RSA-4096, and SHA-512 operations.
For those looking to experiment with the chips, Synaptics has announced support for evaluation through the Astra Machina Micro — a more compact version of its Astra Machina Foundation family of systems-on-modules and carrier boards designed for earlier parts in its Astra chip family. The company also promises support through an open-source software development kit (SDK).
Alongside the new SR chips, Synaptics has also unveiled the Veros SYN461x range of "triple-combo" connectivity chips — supporting ultra-low-power Wi-Fi on 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, Bluetooth 6.0 with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and IEEE 802.15.4 implementations including Zigbee and Thread with support for the cross-vendor Matter smart home connectivity standard.
"The SYN461x family is a breakthrough addition to our Veros portfolio," boasts Vineet Ganju of the parts. "The SoCs [Systems-on-Chips] are our first in a series designed from the ground up for ULP [Ultra-Low Power] embedded edge AI IoT applications."
Both chip families are available to order from Synaptics now, and the Astra Machina Micro development kit is available in the channel at around $250, with more information available on the Synaptics website; the company will also be demonstrating the new parts at Embedded World this week, Hall 4A Booth 259.
