Axelera.ai: High-Performance Edge AI Acceleration for Real-World Applications

Axelera.ai is Europe’s largest AI chipmaker, delivering cutting-edge AI acceleration hardware and software solutions tailored for edge AI inference. With its proprietary Metis AIPU at the core, the platform enables ultra-efficient, high-throughput AI processing across diverse industries, from industrial manufacturing and healthcare to robotics and smart cities. Designed for low power consumption and maximum performance, Axelera.ai’s ecosystem includes the M.2 and PCIe AI Accelerator Cards, Metis Compute Board, and comprehensive evaluation and development systems compatible with both x86 and ARM hosts. The Voyager SDK streamlines deployment of deep neural networks with YAML-based pipeline definition, automatic optimization, and support for PyTorch, ONNX, and TensorFlow—ensuring minimal accuracy loss and seamless integration. The Model Zoo offers over 50 pre-optimized AI models for immediate use, while benchmarks validate performance across real-world workloads. Backed by the European Union’s Horizon programme and trusted by global partners like Dell, Lenovo, and Arduino, Axelera.ai empowers developers and enterprises to build scalable, future-ready AI applications at the edge.

Key Features:

• Metis AIPU (AI Processing Unit): Quad-core, RISC-V-based processor with Digital-In-Memory-Computing (D-IMC) technology for high efficiency and performance.
• M.2 AI Accelerator Card: Compact, high-performance card ideal for constrained devices, featuring 1 GB dedicated DRAM.
• PCIe AI Accelerator Card: Available in single and quad AIPU variants, supporting up to 856 TOPS and offering 4 GB, 16 GB, and 64 GB memory options.
• Metis Compute Board: A single-board computer with a quad-core Metis AIPU and ARM RK3588 processor, enabling multi-stream computer vision and GenAI applications in a compact, energy-efficient form factor.
• Voyager SDK: End-to-end software development kit for building, compiling, optimizing, and deploying AI pipelines with minimal accuracy loss; supports PyTorch, ONNX, and TensorFlow via ONNX.
• Model Zoo: Over 50 pre-optimized AI models for detection, classification, and computer vision tasks, ready for immediate deployment.
• Benchmarks: Performance evaluations for real-world AI workloads, including record-breaking 16.4 fps/$ efficiency on ResNet50v1.
• Metis Evaluation & Development Systems: Fully supported systems for x86 and ARM hosts, enabling rapid prototyping and testing.
• Partner Systems: Pre-integrated solutions with Dell, Advantech, Lenovo, Aetina, SECO, and Arduino for accelerated deployment.
• Energy Efficiency: Achieves up to 15 TOPs/W and typical power consumption under 10 watts, ideal for sustainable edge deployments.
• Real-Time AI Applications: Proven use cases including real-time processing of 24 camera streams with YoloV5 and PPE monitoring in safety-critical environments.

Pricing: Axelera.ai offers a freemium model with free access to software resources like the Voyager SDK and Model Zoo via GitHub, while hardware products and advanced systems are available through paid licensing and purchase options, with enterprise and development solutions offered under subscription and one-time payment models depending on use case.

Conclusion: Axelera.ai stands at the forefront of edge AI innovation, combining powerful hardware, intelligent software, and a robust developer ecosystem to deliver scalable, efficient, and future-proof AI inference solutions—making it an essential tool for developers and enterprises driving real-world AI transformation.