Founded in 2022 and based in Cupertino, California, PIMIC is an AI semiconductor startup specializing in ultra-efficient silicon solutions for edge AI applications. The company’s chip products are intended to deliver industry-leading performance and power efficiency, enabling advanced AI capabilities in compact, low-power devices. The company's Clarity NC100 Deep Neural Network chip is able to deliver exceptional noise suppression, handling challenging environments like strong windy conditions and noisy industrial settings with a single microphone, while consuming just 150μA.
Designed with an ultra-compact silicon die, the Clarity NC100 solution integrates seamlessly into a MEMS microphone package, saving PCB space, making it ideal for space-constrained applications. Its software-free design enables seamless and rapid integration of ENC functionality into any edge devices.
"Developed with the latest advancements in Deep Neural Networks and PIMIC's innovative PIM (Processing-In-Memory) silicon architecture, the NC100 chip is a major breakthrough in noise cancellation technology," says Subi Krishnamurthy, Founder and CEO of PIMIC. "It eliminates even the most challenging background noise, excelling in single-microphone setups where traditional DSP solutions fall short. Clarity NC100 opens new market opportunities by overcoming constraints of size, power, and cost, redefining noise cancellation across industries."
According to PIMIC, the Clarity NC100 chip delivers superior noise suppression using a single microphone, eliminating the need for complex multi-microphone setups, reducing system costs, power consumption, and integration challenges. The integrated approach results in a clear audio experience ideal for noisy environments across diverse applications.
ZillTek, the MEMS microphone manufacturer from Taiwan is set to integrate Clarity NC100 inside of their microphone with samples available in Q1, 2025. "We are excited to integrate PIMIC's Clarity NC100 chip into our advanced microphone solutions," says Joshua Yeh, CTO at ZillTek. "This collaboration enables us to deliver an AI digital microphone with environmental noise cancellation that sets a new benchmark for audio clarity, efficiency, and compact design. Together with PIMIC, we are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in smart AI microphone technology."
Target markets and applications for the Clarity NC100 solution include gaming and communication headsets, surveillance cameras, environmental monitoring systems in industrial and airfields, and naturally all wearable, battery-powered designs, where effective noise cancellation is required.
Jetstreme Processing-in-Memory
PIMIC was founded by technology industry veteran Subi Krishnamurthy, CEO/CTO, who has assembled a world-class engineering and business development team designing and delivering highly-efficient edge AI solutions. The company was founded in response to two significant market trends: the rapid shift of AI inference to edge devices, and the rise of speech as the primary interface for intelligent interactions.
"We founded PIMIC to empower AI devices at the edge with the kind of efficiency and performance that has, until now, only been possible in large, power-intensive environments," says Subi Krishnamurthy. "We recognized a need for AI to be more accessible and practical, not just for cutting-edge technology users, but for everyday applications that can enhance lives."
PIMIC’s proprietary Jetstreme Processing-in-Memory (PIM) acceleration architecture brings remarkable gains in AI computing efficiency by addressing the key requirements in edge environments, including low power, compact design, and superior AI model parameter update performance. "Jetstreme provides substantial technological flexibility, allowing PIMIC to port across semiconductor manufacturing nodes with minimal incremental investment. With its pioneering memory structure, PIMIC aims to redefine the edge AI market by offering a solution that brings cutting-edge innovation to diverse industry segments," explains Krishnamurthy.
Jetstreme is currently built on TSMC's 22nm ultra-low leakage (ULL) technology platform, offering ULL SRAM solutions that enables PIMIC’s scalable AI memory architecture. Key advantages include 10x the power, performance, and area (PPA) over existing near-memory solutions; dynamic AI model updates with high write performance of model parameters, and model reconfiguration with prolonged operational life, essential for next-generation battery operated edge AI applications.
"AI is rapidly expanding from the cloud to the edge, driven by the growing demand for real-time processing, low latency, and energy-efficient solutions in edge devices," says Lucas Tsai, Vice President of Business Management at TSMC North America. "We are proud to collaborate with innovators like PIMIC to tackle the challenge of efficient memory architectures and power the next generation of edge AI applications using TSMC’s industry-leading ultra-low-power platform."
The new Clarity NC100 chip demonstrates PIMIC's expertise in developing cutting-edge AI inference silicon with this Processing-in-Memory (PIM) architecture, enabling exceptional performance with ultra-low power consumption.
At CES 2025, PIMIC will also demonstrate LISTEN, an ultra-low-power a voice control, keyword-spotting chip designed for edge devices. Operating in the 10s of microwatts, LISTEN was designed for battery-powered devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers. The chip supports 32 Wake Words and Keywords purely processed on-device, and its small footprint allows it to fit into a microphone package.
PIMIC will be at CES 2025, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, Booth #9628.
www.zilltek.com
www.pimic.ai
