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Neuromorphic Computing Delivers Low-Power AI

April 22, 2025

BrainChip’s Akida platform offers low-power, neuromorphic machine-learning capabilities.

William G. Wong

Steve Brightfield

Related To:

Electronic Design

What you’ll learn:

What are spiking neural networks?
What is neuromorphic computing?
Where does BrainChip’s Akida fit in?

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are an implementation of neuromorphic computing, an aspect of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Neuromorphic computing emulates the operation of physical neurons like those found in the human brain.

SNNs have a similar layered model connectivity as other artificial neural networks (ANNs). However, SNNs use an event- or pulse-based distribution of information through the network whereas ANNs exploit wave-based distribution. As a result, SNNs are more power-efficient.

In this episode of Inside Electronics, Electronic Design’s Senior Content Director, Bill Wong, talks with Steven Brightfield, Chief Marketing Officer at BrainChip, about SNNs and the company’s Akida platform.

Akida is available as IP for inclusion in custom chips and is licensed by companies like Renesas. It’s also available from BrainChip (see figure). An M.2 version is in the works.

Brainchip's Akida chip — The Akida chip is available on Brainchip’s PCI Express (PCIe) development board.

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About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

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 visit 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.

About the Author

Steve Brightfield | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), BrainChip

Steve Brightfield is Chief Marketing Officer for BrainChip and brings marketing and business development experience across mobile, computing, VR, AI/ML, 5G, infrastructure, networking, data center, multimedia, industrial, military, consumer, and IoT markets. Prior to BrainChip, Steve held senior leadership positions with SiMa.ai, X-Silicon, Bright Datum, SiliconArts, Wave Computing, Qualcomm, and others.