Kalray announces the availability of its new processor "Coolidge™2", the first DPU optimized for AI and data intensive processing

Grenoble – France, Sept 21, 2023 – Kalray (Euronext Growth Paris: ALKAL), a leading provider of hardware and software technologies and solutions for high-performance, data-centric computing markets from Cloud to Edge today announces the availability of Coolidge™2, the new version of its 3rd generation DPU processor. Coolidge™2 will be delivered to the first customers by the end of the month. Thanks to Coolidge™2, Kalray intends to accelerate its growth, particularly in the storage and edge computing markets.

COMMERCIALIZATION PHASE BEGINS FOR COOLIDGE™2

Following the completion of the Coolidge™2 design phase in June and the beginning of its production, Kalray received the first samples of its new processor in late August.

“We are very pleased to announce that Coolidge™2 meets all our expectations and will be delivered to our first customers by the end of the month,” says Eric Baissus, President of the Board of Directors of Kalray. “This is, of course, a major milestone marking the beginning of a new phase with the commercialization of this new processor.“

Coolidge™2 will be delivered to the first customers by the end of September. Coolidge™2 comes with Kalray’s complete development environment, including the Kalray AccessCore™ SDK, the KaNN software tool for porting various deep learning networks developed from industry-standard tools, and the new K300 acceleration cards featuring Coolidge™2.

THE FIRST DPU TAILORED FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

DPUs (Data Processing Units) offer a new approach to processing complex data streams more efficiently compared to traditional architectures such as GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) or FPGAs (Field Programmable Arrays).

Based on its patented original MPPA (Massively Parallel Processor Array) architecture, Kalray is the first DPU1 manufacturer to have integrated ultra high performance artificial intelligence capabilities with Coolidge™2, a functionality that will become crucial in the coming years. Coolidge™2 offers in particular:

• Calculation capabilities, between 5 and 10 times higher than Coolidge™1 (50 TOPS in “integer” processing, and 25 TOPS in “floating-point” processing);
• Optimized energy consumption of over 50% for certain data flows;
• A completely open and standard programming environment, compatible with Coolidge™1;
• A unique ability to integrate classical processing algorithms, AI processing, and communication protocols on the same processor;

COOLIDGE™2 AT THE HEART OF KALRAY’S OFFERING FOR THE DATA INTENSIVE STORAGE MARKET…

With the rise of AI and the need to process and analyze data more efficiently, fast storage plays a crucial role. Kalray now offers a complete hardware and software solution, allowing companies, data centers, or storage infrastructure manufacturers to deploy increasingly powerful solutions, especially in new use cases such as generative AI.

Coolidge™2 aims to further enhance the performance of its current range of fast storage solutions. Acceleration cards based on Coolidge™2 will deliver performance gains of 20% to 50% compared to current solutions, significant energy consumption reductions, and support for additional features such as real-time compression to optimize storage utilization.

“The data-intensive storage market is a growing market, especially given the adoption of increasingly large predictive AI models that are very resource-intensive. Kalray’s offering is already used by our customers in the storage market for AI. Coolidge™2 will allow us to offer an even more powerful range of products in this fast growing market,” says Eric Baissus.

… AND EDGE COMPUTING

Beyond the data-intensive storage market, Kalray aims to take a leadership position in the broader edge computing market. Coolidge™2 targets two particular types of solutions. “Smart Vision” solutions involve analyzing streams of images or videos as efficiently as possible, particularly using new AI-based approaches. Kalray has already signed a major contract with an industry leader in 20222 who will be one of the first to test Coolidge™2. Additionally, the telecommunications and 5G market, for which Kalray is working with several industry leaders, is also evolving rapidly with the increasing adoption of AI to replace or complement traditional algorithms that have been commonly used to date.

ABOUT KALRAY

Kalray is a leading provider of hardware and software technologies and solutions for high-performance, data-centric computing markets, from cloud to edge.

Kalray provides a full range of products to enable smarter, more efficient, and energy-wise data-intensive applications and infrastructures. Its offers include its unique patented DPU (Data Processing Unit) processors and acceleration cards as well as its leading-edge software-defined storage and data management offers. Separated or in combination, Kalray’s high-performance solutions allow its customers to improve the efficiency of data centers or design the best solutions in fast-growing sectors such as AI, Media & Entertainment, Life Sciences, Scientific Research, Edge Computing, Automotive and others.

Founded in 2008 as a spin-off of the well-known French CEA research lab, with corporate and financial investors such as Alliance Venture (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi), NXP Semiconductors or Bpifrance, Kalray is dedicated through technology, expertise, and passion to offer more: more for a smart world, more for the planet, more for customers and developers. www.kalrayinc.com