• Femtosense
    685ac3571fa72a0a2442e1aa Promofemtosense Promo

    Packing Large AI into Small Embedded Systems

    June 24, 2025
    Femtosense CEO Sam Fok talks about AI/ML on the edge and the company’s dual-sparsity processing unit.
    ,
    ,
    Related To:

    What you’ll learn:

    • What is Femtosense’s SPU-001 AI accelerator.
    • How sparsity and small-footprint accelerators reduce space and power requirements.

     

    Not every microcontroller can handle artificial-intelligence and machine-learning (AI/ML) chores. Simplifying the models is one way to squeeze algorithms into a more compact embedded compute engine. Another way is to pair it with an AI accelerator like Femtosense’s Sparse Processing Unit (SPU) SPU-001 and take advantage of sparsity in AI/ML models (see figure).

    Femtosense
    AI/ML tools take advantage of sparsity in AI/ML models
    Most AI/ML tools take advantage of sparsity in AI/ML models, thus eliminating a lot of computation.

    In this episode, I get the facts from Sam Fok, CEO of Femtosense, about AI/ML on the edge, the company’s dual-sparsity design, and how the small, low power SPU-001 can augment a host processor.

    SHOW NOTES

    01:26 – SPU-001 NPU

    05:17 – Model Support

    08:26 – Memory

    09:55 – Audio Inputs

    10:55 – ADAM-100

    13:37 – Audio Applications

    15:04 – Future of Functionality

    >>Check out these TechXchanges for more podcasts, and similar articles and videos

    Electronic Design
    Check out our latest podcast featuring Alix Paultre, along with other special hosts from our editorial staff.
    Dreamstime.com
    tinyml_techxchange_promo_2
    AI and machine learning, including tinyML, can run on microcontrollers and small SoCs.
    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. 

    Email
    About the Author

    Sam Fok | CEO, Femtosense

    Sam Fok is Founder and CEO of Femtosense.

    About the Author

    Marie Darty | Group Multimedia Director, Engineering & Manufacturing

    Marie Darty is a digital media professional currently serving as the Group Multimedia Director for the Manufacturing & Engineering Group at Endeavor Business Media. A graduate of Jacksonville State University, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Digital Communication with a concentration in Digital Journalism in December 2016. In her current role, she leads the strategy and production of multimedia content, overseeing video series planning and editing. Additionally, she oversees podcast production and marketing of multimedia content.

    Continue Reading

    Sponsored Recommendations

    Comments

    To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!