AMD, IIT-B partner to support semiconductor startups in India

New Delhi, July 15: Chip-maker AMD India on Monday announced a partnership with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), an incubator at IIT-Bombay, to promote semiconductor startups in the country.

Under the partnership, AMD will provide grants to IIT-B incubated startups working on the development of energy-efficient spiking neural network (SNN) chips.

The startups will have to devise ways to significantly reduce energy consumption utilised by conventional neural networks.

“We aim to deliver a 30x improvement in energy efficiency for AMD processors and accelerators powering HPC and AI training by 2025. This means we are increasing the energy efficiency of compute nodes at a rate that is significantly faster than the aggregate industry-wide improvement made during the last five years,” said Jaya Jagadish, Country Head, of AMD India.

Jagadish noted that the company “continuously works with industry bodies and academia to support initiatives that help drive innovation”.

As India looks to execute a comprehensive semiconductor strategy, it is important to nurture, build, and grow startups in this space.

“As design cycles are long and cost of entry high in the semiconductor design area, it is SINE's endeavour to foster and create strong, product-focussed, cutting-edge semiconductor design startups by addressing gaps in the industry," added Shaji Varghese, CEO, SINE- IIT Bombay.

The first grant was given to Numelo Technologies for developing SNN chips using ultralow power quantum tunneling on silicon on insulator (SOI) technology.

The partnership prioritises the inclusion of quality education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and promotes scientific research as a part of its CSR programme.