The following article, which came up in my Google search on “Brainchip”, claims that a virtually unknown British fabless semiconductor company specialising in the design of complex digital ASICs and SoCs played a critical role in the design of Elon Musk’s Neuralink “brain chip”, even though no further details were specified.
EXCLUSIVE: Sondrel is one of only a few companies capable of designing and supplying the highly complex chips outside Asia.
www.dailymail.co.uk
While tabloids are not exactly trustworthy news sources and their articles should generally be taken with a grain of salt, they do from time to time reveal truthful information before any serious news outlet will follow suit. But regardless of whether this rumour turns out to be true (btw, earlier today, the company, which is listed at the London Stock Exchange’s market for small and mid caps AIM, felt compelled to publish a statement regarding the notable move (> 100 % as I write) in share price, see below), I find this “secretive” fabless semiconductor business that I had never heard of before immensely intriguing - just have a look at the partners and (known) customers…
Arm Approved Design Partner specialising in complex custom ASICs across multiple end markets including automotive and video processing. We provide a full turnkey service in the design, prototyping, testing, packaging and production of ASICs.
www.sondrel.com
Specialists in Complex Digital ASICs
Sondrel is one of only a few companies worldwide that can deliver these complex chips and the only one headquartered in Europe.
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Key Strengths
PThe Directors believe that Sondrel has a number of key strengths and advantages that are important to the success of the business:
- Sondrel is delivering designs at 5 nanometres and is now working on 3 nanometre process nodes. This level of engineering capability is limited to Sondrel and a small number of Asian competitors and positions Sondrel to benefit from megatrends driving the increasing use of ASICs globally and the production of products utilising increasingly complex design geometries.
- Sondrel provides leading edge ASIC/SoC designs to a global customer base iIn advanced end markets with significant structural growth drivers including high performance computing, automotive, artificial intelligence, VR/AR, video analytics, image processing mobile networking and data centres.
- Sondrel has a team of more than 130 expert engineers that are located across 5 design centres globally; the UK, USA, China, India and Morocco. This enables Sondrel to be one of only a handful of companies worldwide with the scale, capability and strength of industry relationships to deliver projects in leading technologies.
- Established relationships with semiconductor IP and electronic design automation (“EDA”) providers, materials and equipment companies and fabrication partners. Sondrel has a long-standing partnership with and capability approval from Arm; is one of only 22 global partners in TSMC’s Design Centre Alliance; and has comparable relationships with Samsung, being one of only three non-Asian Samsung Foundry SAFE™ design service partners globally, and Global Foundries.
- From concept to delivered ASICs/SoCs, Sondrel is able to act as a single counterparty to its customers as a provider of a full turnkey suite service in the design, prototyping, testing, packaging and production of ASICs and SoCs.
- Sondrel is able to provide customers with the ability to de-risk the design of ASICs/SoCs through the use of Sondrel’s “Architecting the Future” IP platforms.
- Sondrel has a clear organic growth strategy focused on increasing its engineering headcount and investing in IP to further enhance its competitive position, accelerating its growth in key geographies including the USA and Asia.
- Sondrel has a proven and experienced founder-led management team.
- Sondrel has delivered revenue growth from inception to 31 December 2021 at a CAGR of 20 per cent. As at 31 July 2022, the Group’s pipeline of revenue opportunities stood at more than £300 million4 (excluding potentially material related production/supply revenues) and the Directors have ambitions to grow the Group to £100 million of annual revenue in the medium term.
Growth Strategy
The Group has ambitions to grow revenues to over £100 million in the medium term.
Sondrel has transitioned its business model to provide a full turnkey ASIC/SoC design and supply service for its customers that includes contracting for the testing and production of ASICs/SoCs in addition to the existing design and production consulting. Tturnkey design and supply contracts will allow the Group to address more opportunities in parallel than has historically been the case and therefore to scale revenues more rapidly.
Sondrel plans to increase the number of engineers it employs from its current level of 134 to approximately 150 by the end of 2022 and to approximately 165 by the end of 2023. This will enable the Group to address more opportunities in its pipeline, further develop its Architecting the Future IP platforms and increase its efforts on R&D.
Sondrel has identified the USA as a key growth market and plans to increase investments in sales and marketing in region to accelerate sales of the Company’s services.
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Today’s advanced SoC designs can only be built when drawing on a range of globally recognised expert companies in the areas of IP, EDA tools, production, test, qualification and yield optimisation. Our strategic partnerships in these areas enable us to give our clients access to the best IP, technology, tools and facilities the industry has to offer.
Semiconductor Ecosystem Partners
Arm Approved Design Partner
Design Center Alliance Partner
Design Solution Partner
Our enterprise agreement with Synopsys ensures that we have full access to its complete suite of tools including architecture, design, test and verification for all nodes down to 5nm.
Having access to state-of-the-art EDA software is vital for our business as we pioneer solutions using cutting edge design technology at the latest nodes. Sondrel has had a strong partnership with Siemens EDA for many years and, through this relationship, many of Sondrel’s customers have benefitted from Siemens EDA’s market leading technologies.
Industry Bodies
GSA
GSA is
Where Leaders Meet to establish a profitable and sustainable semiconductor ecosystem. This expanding ecosystem encompasses semiconductors, software, solutions, systems and services. As a leading semiconductor and technology industry organization, they offer an efficient and strategic platform for thought leadership.
TechWorks
TechWorks mission is to strengthen the UK's deep tech capabilities as a global leader of future technologies.
To do this we form adjacent connected communities that are influential in defining and shaping the advancements of industry - providing a platform to help our members strategically leverage products and services to drive profitable growth.
IESA
IESA is India's premier industry body for ESDM & Intelligent Electronics. Their main objective is to establish India as a leading global hub for electronics manufacturing and design. They work with government ministries, industry players, and academic institutions to facilitate the comprehensive implementation of the Program for Development of Semiconductor and Display Ecosystem. Their team of renowned experts in semiconductor and display technologies is committed to promoting technology solutions that positively impact the lives of 1.3 billion Indians.
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Edge AI
Huge advances in electronics have been made by giving devices access to the computing and storage power of sophisticated server farms via the internet to provide a high level of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is known as cloud-based processing. But these farms use a massive amount of electricity giving them a large carbon footprint let alone all the power used by the internet infrastructures.
In the drive to reduce carbon emission, we are designing solutions for customers that have the AI in the device – known as Edge AI. It’s our sweet spot of designing ASICs that integrate a large number of features into one chip.
Edge AI refers to the deployment of AI technologies directly on edge devices, such as smartphones, IoT devices, cameras, drones and other embedded systems, instead of relying on cloud-based processing. The approach offers several benefits, including reduced latency, improved privacy and security, and increased efficiency as well as cutting out the massive amount of power required for cloud-processing.
Here are some typical applications of AI at the edge:
- Autonomous Vehicles
- Smart Surveillance
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
- Healthcare Monitoring
- Edge Robotics
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Automotive
We are a major supplier of chip designs for Automotive applications because we understand the complex, highly demanding standards of ISO 26262 and Functional Safety (FuSa). Key to this are our
Architecting the Future architectural frameworks from which we craft custom ASIC designs to meet exacting technical and commercial requirements. We have ADAS-specific, architectural frameworks designed for fast-tracking ISO 26262 Functional Safety compliance.
Automotive chips play a crucial role in modern vehicles by providing computing power and enabling various functions and features such as sensor control.
Here are some typical applications of automotive chips:
- ADAS
- In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems
- Telematics
- Engine Control Units
- Electric Vehicle Systems
- Advanced Lighting Systems
- LIDAR & Cameras
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8K Video
Video has been a core strength of Sondrel for many years and we have designed numerous ASICs for customers across a wide range of application areas from surveillance to games consoles, building up a bank of expertise that makes us one of the leaders in this field. When it comes to handling big data streams, we're the experts.
An example of recent work was for a multi-spectral computer vision technology specialist. We created an ASIC for facial and object recognition from video streams on end node, security camera devices. This 400 mm2 chip incorporated two quadcore multithread CPUs and was on a 16nm node process.
Here are some typical applications for 8K video:
- AR/VR
- Medical Imaging
- Architecture and Design
- Surveillance
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Smart Homes
When it comes to turning a myriad of single chip solutions into one ASIC to reduce costs, size and power consumption, we are the first choice for companies working in this area. We know how to integrate new features such as multiple sensors to make their devices smarter and give them that vital competitive edge over rivals. When you need a complex digital ASIC, we are your solution to create smarter devices.
Smart homes utilize Internet of Things (IoT) devices and automation technology to enhance comfort, convenience, security, and energy efficiency within residential spaces for an enhanced user experience. Here are some typical applications of smart home technology:
- Home security
- Lighting Control
- Energy Management
- Home Entertainment
- Automated Appliances
- Digital Assistants
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Wearables
Sondrel’s key strengths include designing for low power operation and for minimal area. Laying out all the IP blocks needed for an ASIC is relatively easy at the first pass – it’s rather like putting all the pieces of a jigsaw out on a table top. The skill is connecting them all together in the right locations to optimise the flow of data between the blocks without bottlenecks and areas of overheating. And the area has to be minimised to keep costs down though this is partially helped (or complicated) by having multiple layers for interconnections making this a three-dimensional challenge. Or four dimensional when you consider timing issues.
The ideal solution inside a smartwatch is all the electronics on just one chip rather than numerous chips as they take up much more area -- the sum of the area of several ICs being greater than an all-in-one. There are few companies with the skills to design such a complex, highly integrated ASIC which is why we are in discussions with a couple of companies in this area.
Here are some typical applications for wearables:
- Fitness and Health Tracking
- Heart Rate Monitoring
- Sleep Monitoring
- Notifications and Communications
- Music and Media Control
- Hearing Aids
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Consumer Devices
We have designed SoCs for dozens of innovative consumer devices over the years from advanced game consoles to phones. We’ve fitted them with Bluetooth, WiFi, all manner of sensors and ever more powerful processors because the next generation of a product has to be smarter than the previous one to ensure continued product sales and differentiation from rival offerings.
We work closely with companies to work out what new features can be incorporated and still meet the constraints of end product costs. Essentially working forwards and backwards to determine a solution that balances features, performance and costs. It’s always a compromise but we bring to the discussions our intimate knowledge of the costs of designing and making chips so that the best possible balance can be achieved for Power, Performance and Area. And bring new ideas to the table to enhance a project based on innovations we have created for other customers plus new ones just for you.
Here are some typical applications for consumer devices:
- Smartphones
- Laptops and Computers
- Gaming Consoles
- Smart TV’s
- Digital Cameras
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A smarter, faster way to design chips with less risk
To accelerate the design process in different markets, Sondrel's custom silicon solutions are supported by our innovative
Architecting the Future. Architecting the Future is a comprehensive, silicon chip design platform which we created and continually advance to design and deliver custom ASICs. It represents infrastructure intellectual property and a family of frameworks built on experience developed delivering 100’s of IC designs in various market segments. It de-risks and shortens time to market to ensure that right first time projects are delivered on time and within budget.
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www.londonstockexchange.com
Statement re Share Price Movement
08 February 2024
Sondrel (AIM:SND), a leading provider of ultra-complex chips for leading global technology brands, notes the movement in its share price and recent press speculation.
Sondrel remains one of only a few companies capable of designing and supplying higher-spec, complex chips built on the most advanced semiconductor technologies, and the Group's customer base continues to include leading global technology brands.
The Company remains encouraged that demand for Sondrel's ASIC services, including in the US, remains strong and that the Group continues to trade in line with current market expectations with a number of new ASIC business opportunities at advanced stages of negotiation. The Group does not comment on the identity of customers.
For further information:
| Sondrel (Holdings) plc | Via Buchanan |
| Graham Curren, CEO | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000 |
| Nick Stone, Interim CFO | |
| |
| Cavendish Capital Markets Limited | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
| Ben Jeynes / Katy Birkin / George Lawson - Corporate Finance | |
| Michael Johnson - Sales | |
| |
| Buchanan Communications | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000 |
Chris Lane
Stephanie Whitmore | sondrel@buchanan.uk.com |
| Abby Gilchrist | |
About Sondrel
Sondrel is a UK-based fabless semiconductor company specialising in high end, complex digital Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and System on Chips (SOCs). It provides a full turnkey service in the design, prototyping, testing, packaging and production of ASICs and SoCs.
The Company is one of only a few companies capable of designing and supplying the higher-spec chips built on the most advanced semiconductor technologies, selling into a range of hyper growth end markets such as high-performance computing, automotive, artificial intelligence, VR/AR, video analytics, image processing, mobile networking and data centres. Sondrel designs have enabled products by leading technology brands including Apple (iPhone), Sony (PlayStation), Meta's (Oculus), Samsung, Google and Sony smartphones, JVC (prosumer camcorders), Tesla and Mercedes-Benz cars.
Sondrel is well-established, with a 20-year track record of successful delivery, supported by long standing ecosystem partnerships including Arm, TSMC and Samsung. Headquartered in the UK, Sondrel has a global presence with offices in UK, USA, China, India and Morocco.
For more information please visit:
ir.sondrel.com.
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