AIStorm Receives $13.2M to Develop Next-Gen Semiconductor

AIStorm has landed $13.2 million in Series A funding to develop a next-generation semiconductor for future IoT devices. The new semiconductor will reportedly allow users to process analog sensor data more quickly and at a fraction of the current cost.

According to AIStorm, the challenge is that raw data needs to be converted to a digital form before it can be analyzed. Doing so currently requires expensive and power-hungry GPUs, which limits the extent to which they can be incorporated into mobile devices. The new semiconductor offers a potential solution, processing analog data in real time and mitigating the latency gaps that often afflict the information transfer.  

“For the first time, AIStorm’s approach allows us to intelligently prune data from the sensor stream in real time and keep up with the massive sensor input tasks,” said Todd Lin, the COO of the biometrics provider Egis Technology, one of the backers of AIStorm.

“The reaction time saved by AIStorm’s approach can mean the difference between an advanced driver-assistance system detecting an object and safely stopping versus a lethal collision,” added Russell Ellwanger, the CEO of TowerJazz, an image sensor specialist and another backer.

The $13.2M was provided by the Meyer Corporation and Linear Dimensions Semiconductor in addition to Egis and TowerJazz. AIStorm CEO David Schie believes his company’s solution will be five to ten times cheaper than GPUs “without any compromise in performance.” If all goes well, the semiconductor will make many sensor-based industries far more efficient, just as better semiconductors have reduced the power demands of biometric payment cards.

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February 12, 2019 – by Eric Weiss