Chips & Supply · United States

TDB-DST signs agreement with BigEndian Semiconductors for ₹130 crore RDI support

Credited to The Hindu BusinessLine · thehindubusinessline.com · 21h ago

Photograph · The Hindu BusinessLine

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By BL Bengaluru Bureau

Secure and application-specific chips can play an important role in addressing requirements related to data security, privacy, device-level intelligence and technology sovereignty

The Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, has signed an agreement with Bengaluru-based BigEndian Semiconductors for financial support of ₹130 crore under the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund.

The project, Project VeerAI, has a total project cost of ₹260 crore and aims to take the technology from technology readiness level (TRL)-5 to TRL-9. The financial support will be provided through optional convertible debt (OCD). Project VeerAI seeks to develop a camera-focused AI Vision system-on-chip (SoC) on a sovereign technology platform, addressing the growing requirement for secure, intelligent and application-specific semiconductor solutions.

The project is positioned around the development of a secure AI chip for surveillance applications, particularly CCTV systems, to reduce dependence on externally developed semiconductor and technology supply chains. The proposed platform is designed to combine AI processing and smart features with security, privacy and connectivity capabilities. The technology is being developed initially for CCTV and surveillance applications in India and the Global South, with a roadmap for deployment across multiple sectors. Beyond surveillance, the platform is envisaged for applications in defence, automotive, industrial and medical domains, creating a wider market for indigenous AI-enabled semiconductor solutions.

The project also seeks to leverage India’s growing VLSI design and semiconductor talent, translating domestic design capabilities into a scalable product platform. By focusing on application-specific SoCs rather than general-purpose chips, the programme aims to address specific industry requirements while enabling faster technology deployment and commercialisation.

Secure and application-specific chips can play an important role in addressing requirements related to data security, privacy, device-level intelligence and technology sovereignty.

Through the RDI support, BigEndian Semiconductors will undertake further technology development, validation, integration, testing and scale-up activities required to progress Project VeerAI from TRL-5 to TRL-9.

Deployable products

Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Secretary, TDB, said, “Semiconductors are foundational to almost every emerging technology, and building indigenous capabilities in application-specific AI chips is an important part of strengthening India’s technology ecosystem. The RDI Fund enables sustained support for technologies that require significant investment to move from advanced development to commercial deployment. The support to BigEndian Semiconductors reflects TDB’s focus on enabling Indian companies to develop strategic semiconductor capabilities and translate domestic design expertise into deployable products.”

Promoters of BigEndian Semiconductors said, “The RDI support from TDB will enable us to accelerate the development and validation of Project VeerAI and take our AI Vision SoC towards commercial readiness. Our focus is on building a secure, application-specific semiconductor platform that can address the requirements of surveillance and other critical sectors while leveraging India’s indigenous semiconductor design capabilities. This partnership will help us progress the technology towards TRL-9 and contribute to the development of a stronger domestic semiconductor ecosystem.”

Chips & SupplyUnited States

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Chips & Supply · United States

Mueon nabs $65M in funding to develop 3D computing modules

Credited to SiliconANGLE · siliconangle.com · 13h ago

Photograph · SiliconANGLE

Data center hardware startup Mueon Corp. today announced that it has raised $65 million in funding.

Semiconductor-focused fund Maverick Silicon led the Series A round. It was joined by Intel’s venture capital arm, Oregon Venture Fund, Wellington Capital, IQT and several others.

Mueon was founded last year by former Intel engineers Wilfred Gomes and Jack Hwang. Gomes, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, worked on die stacking technologies during his time at the chip giant. Hwang, who is Mueon’s Chief Technology Officer, helped develop the techniques that Intel uses to etch transistors into silicon wafers.

A traditional server’s core components sit next to one another on a motherboard in a kind of two-dimensional configuration. Mueon is developing a three-dimensional server architecture, Cubelet, that stacks computing and memory components atop one another. According to the company, the technology could prove up to be 10 times more power- and cost-efficient than current hardware.

Stacked system designs are more efficient than traditional 2D hardware because they pack server components closer together. That reduces the physical distance data must travel between those components. Shortening data travel times, in turn, lowers the associated power use. It also speeds up computations in the process.

In a blog post published last year, Mueon investor Oregon Venture Fund described Cubelets as “Legos for the data center.” The post stated that a Cubelet module includes not only computing and storage modules but also the auxiliary hardware they need to operate reliably. That includes interconnect, power delivery and thermal management equipment.

Thermal management is a major challenge in 3D computing systems. One source of complexity is that processors and memory chips often have different maximum operating temperatures. That means a processor operating near its maximum temperature can overheat any memory modules that may be stacked on top of it.

In many servers, chips dissipate a part of the heat they generate by channeling it to the motherboard. Doing so is relatively simple when a chip is placed directly on its motherboard. However, that’s often not the case in 3D systems. The heat from the top layer of a 3D system must go through multiple other components before it reaches the motherboard.

Last year’s Oregon Venture Fund blog post stated that Mueon had found a way of addressing 3D systems’ thermal management issues. The article also detailed that the company’s Cubelet modules can host multiple types of chips. They will support, among others, graphics cards and Arm central processing units.

Mueon stated today that its Cubelets are optimized for artificial intelligence and hyperscale workloads. The company will use the proceeds from its funding round to hire more engineers and improve its system design. In parallel, Mueon is developing software that will enable customers to run popular AI frameworks on its hardware.

“This financing gives us the scale to bring the next generation of compute and memory system-scale integration to market,” Gomes said. “Mueon’s architecture is built to move past today’s rack-level constraints and deliver the kind of density the rest of the industry is only beginning to chart a path toward.”

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