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Seamless design of smart edge processors

Project description

Smart and secure ultra-low power processors for Edge AI

Modern electronic devices become a lot more useful once connected to the internet. The booming world of the Internet-of-things (IoT), which includes smart cameras, personal healthcare and connected cars, has made that very clear. The EU-funded CONVOLVE project aims to make the growth of smart connected edge devices sustainable, by making processors 100 times more efficient, while ensuring security by design that protects the data and the privacy of the European society. CONVOLVE will shorten the time to market of AI-driven specialised edge processors, contributing to the European sovereignty on the semiconductor area and the EU Chip Acts.

Objective

With the rise of deep learning (DL), our world braces for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in every edge device, creating an urgent need for edge-AI processing hardware. Unlike existing solutions, this hardware needs to support high throughput, reliable, and secure AI processing at ultra-low power (ULP), with a very short time to market.

With its strong legacy in edge solutions and open processing platforms, the EU is ideally positioned to become the leader in this edge-AI market. However, certain roadblocks keep the EU from assuming this leadership role: Edge processors need to become 100x more energy efficient; Their complexity demands automated design with 10x design time reduction; They must be secure and reliable to get accepted; Finally, they should be flexible and powerful to support the DL domain.

CONVOLVE addresses these roadblocks and thereby enables EU leadership in Edge-AI. To that end, it will take a holistic approach with innovations at all design stack levels, including:
1.ULP memristive circuits for computation-in-memory
2.Fast compositional design of System-on-Chips (SoC)
3.Transparent compilers supporting automated code optimizations and domain-specific languages
4.Rethinking DL models through dynamic neural networks, event-based execution, and sparsity
5.On-edge continuous learning for improved accuracy, self-healing, and reliable adaptation to non-stationary environments
6.Holistic integration in SoCs supporting secure execution with real-time guarantees

The CONVOLVE consortium includes some of Europe's strongest research groups and industries, covering the whole design stack and value chain. In a community effort, we will demonstrate Edge-AI computing in real-life vision and audio domains. By combining these innovative ULP and fast design solutions, CONVOLVE will, for the first time, enable reliable, smart, and energy-efficient edge-AI devices at a rapid time-to-market and low cost, and as such open the road for EU leadership in edge-processing.

Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01

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Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 181 886,25
Address
GROENE LOPER 3
5612 AE Eindhoven
Netherlands

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Region
Zuid-Nederland Noord-Brabant Zuidoost-Noord-Brabant
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 181 886,25

Participants (14)

Partners (4)

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