Neverending disappointment![]()
Hi Bravo,
What do you mean deflatingHi Bravo,
This is a real sign of life.
Would the real Akida 1500 please stand up.
Apparently the Akida 1500 we had grown to know and love was just the reference version. Essentially the original version of 1500 was just a cut down version of Akida 1 without the ARM Cortex, so it looks like there has been some changes in the circuit design to necessitate a new tape-out.
The Akida 1 datasheet now "supports" 128 MACs per node, (4*4 MACS). The inclusion of MACs in the design has only been public since the advent of TENNs, but the Akida 1 datasheet does not mention TENNs capability. Does this mean that the original brilliant SNN NPU has been outshone by MACs?
1500 is cheaper than Akida 1 because it does not entail the ARM Cortex licence and because it has a smaller wafer real estate footprint (also because of the lack of the Cortex) meaning more chips with your wafer.
1500 is processor agnostic. It can be used with any MCU/CPU/GPU.
The press release refers to "Moving to volume production" as a strategic step, and this suggests to me that the tapeout is not just for a single customer.
The strong customer demand (military, areospace, medical, wearables) suggests that the 1500 IP is to be used either as a standalone chip/chiplet, or as part of a NSoC which does not include the ARN Cortex.
Frontgrade is proposing to make its own NSoC, GR801 including Akida 1 IP with RISC-V CPU, but it would presumably need the new volume production Akida 1500 IP, so the tapeout will support the GR801.
Onsor is another potential customer that we know about.
I would guess that the micro-Doppler radar (RTX/ISL) would require the higher precision of 8-bit or 16-bit), but there are many other applications for 1500.
This bit suggests the IP only business model was overambitious, and Sean's initial assessment of Akida 1 was off the mark:
"As the market matures, and partners become more deeply integrated into the ecosystem, it is expected that a portion of this demand will transition into an IP licensing model."
The timeline of Q3 2026 is a bit deflating.
I think they
First quarter 2026 tap out I believe is the reference, in saying that we still have plenty of irons in the fire with Akida 1 and 2 that will be profitable very soon imo.What do you mean deflating
Hi Bravo,
This is a real sign of life.
Would the real Akida 1500 please stand up.
Apparently the Akida 1500 we had grown to know and love was just the reference version. Essentially the original version of 1500 was just a cut down version of Akida 1 without the ARM Cortex, so it looks like there has been some changes in the circuit design to necessitate a new tape-out.
The Akida 1 datasheet now "supports" 128 MACs per node, (4*4 MACS). The inclusion of MACs in the design has only been public since the advent of TENNs, but the Akida 1 datasheet does not mention TENNs capability. Does this mean that the original brilliant SNN NPU has been outshone by MACs?
1500 is cheaper than Akida 1 because it does not entail the ARM Cortex licence and because it has a smaller wafer real estate footprint (also because of the lack of the Cortex) meaning more chips with your wafer.
1500 is processor agnostic. It can be used with any MCU/CPU/GPU.
The press release refers to "Moving to volume production" as a strategic step, and this suggests to me that the tapeout is not just for a single customer.
The strong customer demand (military, areospace, medical, wearables) suggests that the 1500 IP is to be used either as a standalone chip/chiplet, or as part of a NSoC which does not include the ARN Cortex.
Frontgrade is proposing to make its own NSoC, GR801 including Akida 1 IP with RISC-V CPU, but it would presumably need the new volume production Akida 1500 IP, so the tapeout will support the GR801.
Onsor is another potential customer that we know about.
I would guess that the micro-Doppler radar (RTX/ISL) would require the higher precision of 8-bit or 16-bit), but there are many other applications for 1500.
This bit suggests the IP only business model was overambitious, and Sean's initial assessment of Akida 1 was off the mark:
"As the market matures, and partners become more deeply integrated into the ecosystem, it is expected that a portion of this demand will transition into an IP licensing model."
The timeline of Q3 2026 is a bit deflating.
First quarter 2026 tap out I believe is the preferred reference, in saying that we still have plenty of irons in the fire with Akida 1 and 2 that will be profitable very soon imo.
Hi Dio,Hi Bravo,
This is a real sign of life.
Would the real Akida 1500 please stand up.
Apparently the Akida 1500 we had grown to know and love was just the reference version. Essentially the original version of 1500 was just a cut down version of Akida 1 without the ARM Cortex, so it looks like there has been some changes in the circuit design to necessitate a new tape-out.
The Akida 1 datasheet now "supports" 128 MACs per node, (4*4 MACS). The inclusion of MACs in the design has only been public since the advent of TENNs, but the Akida 1 datasheet does not mention TENNs capability. Does this mean that the original brilliant SNN NPU has been outshone by MACs?
1500 is cheaper than Akida 1 because it does not entail the ARM Cortex licence and because it has a smaller wafer real estate footprint (also because of the lack of the Cortex) meaning more chips with your wafer.
1500 is processor agnostic. It can be used with any MCU/CPU/GPU.
The press release refers to "Moving to volume production" as a strategic step, and this suggests to me that the tapeout is not just for a single customer.
The strong customer demand (military, areospace, medical, wearables) suggests that the 1500 IP is to be used either as a standalone chip/chiplet, or as part of a NSoC which does not include the ARN Cortex.
Frontgrade is proposing to make its own NSoC, GR801 including Akida 1 IP with RISC-V CPU, but it would presumably need the new volume production Akida 1500 IP, so the tapeout will support the GR801.
Onsor is another potential customer that we know about.
I would guess that the micro-Doppler radar (RTX/ISL) would require the higher precision of 8-bit or 16-bit), but there are many other applications for 1500.
This bit suggests the IP only business model was overambitious, and Sean's initial assessment of Akida 1 was off the mark:
"As the market matures, and partners become more deeply integrated into the ecosystem, it is expected that a portion of this demand will transition into an IP licensing model."
The timeline of Q3 2026 is a bit deflating.
Do you think this is referring to the Onsor glasses or something else?
The slide on page 11 lists the following categories: Healthcare, Wearables, Consumer.
Onsor's glasses fit in the "medical wearables" category.
Hi Dio,
Yes, good that we have gone back to the future and are now going to be a chip supplier. From memory the original business model was along the lines of supplying chips to smaller customers who wanted to order up to 1 million chips, the IP was for customers wanting larger volume.
Hopefully those smaller customers wil grow to being large, IP customers.
Also, what chance is there that a MegaChips customer is somehow tied in to this? They were involved with the original AKD 1500 and I'm assuming that Global Foundries will be producing the production run.
Hi FJ,Hi Dio,
Yes, good that we have gone back to the future and are now going to be a chip supplier. From memory the original business model was along the lines of supplying chips to smaller customers who wanted to order up to 1 million chips, the IP was for customers wanting larger volume.
Hopefully those smaller customers wil grow to being large, IP customers.
Also, what chance is there that a MegaChips customer is somehow tied in to this? They were involved with the original AKD 1500 and I'm assuming that Global Foundries will be producing the production run.
I thought Onsor were launching early 2026 ?.I believe this is Onsur, as it fits in well ith the AKD1500. Happy to be wrong and it is someone else![]()
Thanks Quiltman,This point has been made elsewhere ...
In late December, BrainChip signed a US$100,000 contract with U.S. defence contractor Bascom
Hunter, for the sale and support of AKD1500 chips for full scale evaluation of commercial products,
which will provide significant improvements over traditional CPU, GPU, and TPU processors and
are considered optimal for low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Machine Learning (ML)
applications. Bascom Hunter works collaboratively with 3rd party technology vendors, such as BrainChip to
integrate their technology for Defense and Intelligence applications.
If the full scale evaluation is complete, perhaps we have been given the green light.
Fantastic news if this is the case.
Doesn't mean the IP negotiations with other entities will not progress ... in fact this may give any negotiations added impetuous in the knowledge that BasCom Hunter are moving forward with rolling out AKD1500 chips ( if that is indeed the case ).
Yes, it would be good to see this announcement followed shortly by one or more announcing contracts.Thanks Quiltman,
A timely reminder that we have many irons in the fire.