Hi TFM,
Renesas do have their own in-house brand of AI called DRP-AI (Dynamically Reconfigurable Processor -AI) which they have worked on for a decade.
View attachment 8549
The recent Renesas announcement did disclose that they were using Akida in very low power products (battery operated?), but it seems they are set on using their DRP-AI wherever they can, even though Akida would give better power consumption and speed.
That's why I don't see Renesas using Akida with a 64-bit processor any time soon, even though it could be used to advantage as an image data accelerator as an input for the 64-bit von Neumann processor. However, competitive pressures may alter that.