France at CES 2023: GreenWaves Technologies
CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas from January 5th to 8th, 2023 brings together hundreds of startups for the biggest “tech” event on the planet. Grenoble-based GreenWaves Technologies is one of the young French companies.
The startup develops ultra-low-power artificial intelligence processors for battery-powered IoT devices. It is being unveiled at CES in Las Vegas for a 2023 release.
What is the background of GreenWaves Technologies?
GreenWaves is an incredible semiconductor startup[1] It was founded in 2014 and is located in Grenoble. We design and market ultra-low power application processors for battery-powered objects: headphones, audio headsets, smart cameras, connected objects and medical monitoring devices.
High computing power of our processors in both AI and DSP[2]enables our customers to develop high-value-added applications that offer innovative use cases for their products with unmatched energy budgets.
Our software development toolchain provides the unique productivity to quickly move complex applications to GAP while ensuring the full performance of our processors.
The computing power embedded in the GreenWaves GAP9 processor enables the integration of advanced functions such as neural network-based noise reduction or adaptive noise cancellation, multi-channel sound spatialization and listening enhancement techniques with unmatched energy efficiency in the market.
GAP9 took first place in the first artificial intelligence benchmark for internal processors (MLPerfTiny) and, depending on the algorithms, beat the 2nd (Syntiant NDP120) by 2-3 times both in terms of energy consumption and computing power, all other processors were far behind.
What are the innovations being developed around GreenWaves products?
In the highly competitive “hearable” headset market, the introduction of disruptive features that improve user comfort and safety is a prerequisite for commercial success for its players.
The next generation of headphones will have to offer a higher level of sound quality by automatically adapting to its user and the user’s environment. Embedded audio software processors must support a combination of DSP and AI processing performed at very low power and latency levels while maintaining flexibility and ease of programming. GreenWaves has created a new type of processor with very high energy performance that uniquely meets these needs. GAP9 is a new ultra-low-power, easy-to-program processor capable of combining classic DSP and neural network processing for a superior audio experience in AI-driven “hearable” headphones.
What are your reasons for attending CES?
This is a very important global technology event and for GreenWaves it is an opportunity to present our revolutionary technologies and meet partners and customers.
Do you have special expectations for this 2023 edition?
This year, we would like to meet with our partners and potential customers to give them a live demonstration of the applications supported by our ultra-low power processor, GAP9:
- Adaptive ANC – canceling ambient noise that perfectly adapts to the user and the environment;
- Immersive spatial audio – restoring the natural human ability to organize sound in space;
- Noise reduction based on artificial intelligence – suppression of background noise during calls (barking dog, passing tram or the sound of a person nearby);
- Smart Surveillance Camera – neural network-based event detection using multi-sensor analysis.
[1] Without a factory
[2] Digital signal processing processors
