EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2024 – POLYN Technology

By Aleksandr Timofeev,   founder and CEO of POLYN Technology

Aleksandr Timofeev

The trend of integration and deployment of edge processors in IoT, wearables, and consumer electronics applications will accelerate this year. Edge processors based on standard digital architecture such as ARM or RISC-V will be replaced by more energy-efficient specialized edge chips. The expansion of edge chips based on in-memory computing will also accelerate as the advantage of analog edge chips over digital edge chips becomes more apparent thanks to greater energy efficiency, higher performance, and lower price.

A companion trend for 2024 will be the creation of new hybrid digital-to-analog systems and the first attempts to integrate memristors as elements of edge chips.

Watch for proofs of concept targeting integration of ultra-low-power analog processors for sensor data extraction with low power digital MCUs to perform classification. The digital twin role in this integration enables refining the extraction details prior to chip production. These proofs of concept will demonstrate maximum efficiency of the analog chip structure for MAC operations both in power and latency.

The 2024 market will see continued growth of smart devices with neural network signal processing directly on the sensor node as a sustainable trend. The parallel trend of battery powered or energy harvesting energy sources for sensor nodes will drive demand for the most energy efficient edge processors. We will see this in areas such as:

• Security and privacy. With more connected devices security becomes paramount. The solution lies in a vertical approach and will include cloudless systems that observe better privacy, better device authentication, administration, accounting, and intelligent network and data controls.
• Healthcare remote patient control and diagnostics. To monitor patients and provide prediction-based vital signs collection. Next-generation approaches to wearable devices and digital therapeutics platforms promise better data analyses and will expand markets to insurance companies, nursing homes, and more. The greater accuracy in measurement will generate demand for novel methods and processes.
• XR. The industry will work to overcome obstacles to full AR mass deployment, and smart glasses for social, health, and context analyses will start seeing mass production. This new type of wearables has great potential for the long term and will bring new requirements for the semiconductor industry.
• Connectivity. Better and wider adoption of 5G for IoT device support and better data utilization will benefit different applications such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and predictive machine maintenance. The synergy and integration of AI, sensors, and network will promote innovation and widespread adoption. We can expect to see a lot of that synergy this year.

Other areas to watch will be asset management inventory, footfall tracking, and automatic checkout. There are predictions of investments in this sector of some $200 billion by 2030, with many companies planning to start evaluation this year.

As far as the role of AI, the surge in the utilization of AI solutions will not slow down. Most people are familiar with cloud solutions like ChatGPT, but there are many at the sensor edge, where sensor makers compete in novel models integrated with ML/AI engines. In light of market projections that by 2030 AI will be a $15 trillion industry, many non-tech sectors will increasingly acknowledge AI’s potential and upgrade existing platforms to incorporate technological advancements.

AI will permeate boardrooms across industries where its presence was previously limited. This transformation will impact decision making processes and draw attention to emerging capabilities in machine learning (ML). AI will demonstrate a notable increase in the adoption of real-time machine learning by businesses. These strategies will leverage data engagement and deploy “enterprise-grade” AI solutions to bolster decision making. That includes deploying AI at different points of the network from IoT devices to the cloud.

About Author:

Aleksandr Timofeev is CEO and Founder of POLYN Technology, an innovative provider of ultra-low-power high-performance NASP (Neuromorphic Analog Signal Processing) technology. Alexander also  founded iGlass Technology, a company that developed novel electrochromic smart glass technology. He is also founder and managing partner at FPI VC team, an early-stage venture investment management company. The fund focuses on early-stage innovative companies, developing clear product concepts and strategies and working with venture firms and partners for subsequent funding rounds.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024 at 1:37 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.