Compact AI Coprocessor Analyzes Audio at the Edge

April 11, 2023
Femtosense's SPU-001 coprocessor delivers low-power AI audio processing.

Computing on the edge almost always requires low-power operation. Running artificial-intelligence/machine-learning (AI/ML) code makes system design more challenging, but AI/ML hardware acceleration helps facilitate the process. This is where Femtosense has targeted its new SPU-001 (see figure).  I talked with Sam Fok, CEO and Founder of Femtosense, about the company's new AI coprocessor that's designed for advanced audio processing (see the video above)

The  SPU-001 handles real-time speech enhancement while consuming under 1 mW. It can implement an always-listening keyword detection using less than 100 mW, translating to continuous battery operation for more than two years. The chip also manages chores like neural beamforming, scene identification, and anomaly detection.

The  SPU-001 fits into a 4- × 4-mm QFN package and uses an SPI interface to work with a host processor. It includes 1 MB of SRAM to support the models and weights. However, through its sparsity support, the device improves memory utilization by a factor of 100. This is accomplished by supporting sparse weights and sparse activations. Sparse weights is done by only storing weights that matter to the model. Sparse activations skips computations where the output of a neuron is zero. 

The Femtosense SDK supports models from PyTorch, Jax, and TensorFlow. The tools also can be used to simulate a system, providing details about energy use, processor latency, and memory footprint. 

Links

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.>

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form. 

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below. 

You can my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.  

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence. 

Sponsored Recommendations

Satellite 2025: Connecting the World Through Space

Feb. 13, 2025
Qorvo is driving the future of satellite communications with industry-leading advancements that redefine performance and reliability. Meet with us at Satellite 2025 and learn ...

Remote Testing with RF Power Sensors

Jan. 24, 2025
Performing power measurements of RF devices and systems is an essential part of ensuring accurate, repeatable characterization. A variety of instruments are capable of measuring...

Ceramic Resonator Filters from Catalog to Custom

Jan. 24, 2025
Mini-Circuits’ line of ceramic coaxial resonator filters features a variety of passbands and frequency ranges between 0.4 and 5.8 GHz. Characterized by high-Q and high K, these...

GaAs Switches Are a High-Performance Alternative to SOI for Test & Measurement Instrumentation

Jan. 24, 2025
RF switches are ubiquitous in modern test instrumentation designs or for test & measurement applications such as those found in semiconductor test applications.