Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek is collaborating with global design houses in a new program that would develop AI-enabled chipset platforms for companies innovating products across the intelligent devices market.
The platform, based on open and industry standard software and hardware, is founded on MediaTek’s chipsets that power most voice, smart speaker, display-centric and AI-infused devices in the market.
MediaTek said under its new rich IoT program, it will be unveiling new chipsets that include edge AI technology for voice, display, object recognition and other features needed for today’s smart (Internet of Things) IoT devices.
Its partners, which include design houses BayLibre and StreamUnlimited and others in China, Europe and the US, support the MediaTek chipsets with industry standard software and offer the needed hardware, software and technical support for companies designing AI devices with MediaTek’s AI IoT platforms.
“The Internet of Things has entered its next phase. AI features are being integrated into nearly every type of consumer device imaginable. That means connected devices now require a processor to support AI applications, rather than a more limited microcontroller unit that has been historically used,” said Jerry Yu, MediaTek Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Intelligent Devices Business Group.
Rich IoT program
According to industry research group Market and Research, the AI IoT market is poised for growth as connected devices need to do more processing at the edge and are being integrated into new product lines.
Moreover, IoT will represent 83% of the entire AI chipset market by 2023. And globally, AI in the embedded IoT devices market will approach $26 billion by 2023.
MediaTek said it will be initially focused on three primary AI IoT segments with its rich IoT program: voice enabled devices, display and screen devices, and AI Vision Devices. Its collaborators will be adding support for the program.
BayLibre, for one, authors board support packages and develops Linux & U-boot drivers for the semiconductor industry. It offers the open source Rity SDK for a full voice assistant-enabled audio solution.
StreamSDK, on the other hand, is a smart audio solution that powers multiple tier-1 voice assistant and streaming devices.
Jawad Haider, Head of Business Development and Partnerships for North America at StreamUnlimited said the company is adding dedicated IoT functionality to its SDK to enable a plethora of new use cases centered around voice assistants, music streaming, and smart home functions.
Seeed Studios, for its part, helps produce and provide global access to the next generation of AI enabled IoT products through its manufacturing and distribution services.
