Netrasemi, an Indian semiconductor company based out of Kerala, has launched its first high-end 12-nanometre AI chip called the A2000 with plans to start commercial production before the end of this year. The homegrown chip which is designed to power Edge AI use cases primarily in areas like surveillance and robotics has successfully completed the initial silicon “bring-up” testing process making it ready for prime-time.
After the sample production of the chip is done, the sample goes through the silicon bring-up process, in which its functions are tested to check if the chip works as intended. Commercial production begins only after the chip successfully completes silicon bring-up.
Netrasemi has raised Rs 125 crore in total funding so far. Investors include Zoho and Unicorn India Ventures.
What can the AI chip A2000 do?
The A2000 chip is a purpose-built edge AI SoC, or system-on-chip. It is designed on TSMC’s 12nm node with in-house NPU, VPU and ISP for inference workloads. The chipset is designed for on-device AI in smart cameras, surveillance, robotics and video gateways.
That is, the A2000 chipset can run AI models locally, without needing to connect to the cloud.
“Our SoCs go beyond conventional AI and ML integration by combining proprietary hardware acceleration IPs with domain-specific optimisations tailored for high-performance, real-time edge AI,” Netrasemi co-founder and chief executive officer Jyothis Indirabhai was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. “We are currently working with several leading OEMs to facilitate early sample evaluations, co-development, and advanced R&D initiatives,” he added.
Netrasemi stated that this 12nm chip size is smaller than the chip initially planned to be produced in India at Tata Electronics’ semiconductor facility in Dholera, Gujarat. The Tata facility, which recently got support from Dutch giant ASML, will be able to produce chipsets on nodes up to 28nm initially.
The semiconductor firm was among the first four start-ups selected for Rs 15 crore in support under the DLI scheme in 2023 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
