DENSO and U.S. Startup Quadric Sign Development License Agreement for AI Semiconductor (NPU)

KARIYA, Japan -- October 30, 2024 －DENSO Corporation and Quadric Inc. have signed a development license agreement for a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which is a semiconductor specialized for the arithmetic processing of artificial intelligence (AI). Through the agreement, DENSO will acquire the intellectual property (IP) core license for Quadric's Chimera general purpose NPU (GPNPU) and the two companies will co-develop IP for an in-vehicle semiconductor.

With the advancement of intelligent systems, such as automated driving and connected technologies, vehicles need to process in real time a vast amount of information obtained from on-board sensors, as well as inter-vehicle and cloud communications. For this reason, the performance of the in-vehicle system on chip (SoC), which can process large amounts of information at high speed and with efficiency, has become increasingly important.

Quadric's Chimera GPNPU enables system developers to add their own AI capabilities in software for the future. To implement such software updates, the hardware must support a wide variety of general-purpose operations. The Chimera GPNPU has a unique architecture (design structure), and the hardware used can handle various kinds of arithmetic processing. As a result, it is possible to update in-vehicle products over a long period of time and to keep up with the latest AI processes.

Comments from both companies

Hiroshi Kondo, Head of Mobility Electronics Group, DENSO:
DENSOwill use its ability to combine and systemize advanced and diverse technologies to develop social systems linked to mobility and solve increasingly complex social issues such as decarbonization, circular economy, and zero traffic fatalities. One of the businesses we are strengthening is semiconductors, which is the foundation of the computing infrastructure for the advancement of vehicle intelligence. We have high expectations for the development of in-vehicle semiconductor IP that can flexibly respond to the AI trend with low power by utilizing Quadric Chimera GPNPU.

VeerbhanKheterpal, CEO, Quadric:

As a marquee Tier 1 automotive supplier throughout the world, DENSO subjected our technology to a comprehensive an intense benchmarking exercise. Being selected by DENSO as their ADAS/AD processor IP partner is a great validation of the growing maturity and breadth of Quadric’s GPNPU processors.

Contact Information: Quadric Inc, for press information contact, email to: info.request@quadric.io

About DENSO CORPORATION

Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO is a $47.2 billion leading mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in around 180 facilities worldwide to provide opportunities for rewarding careers and to produce cutting-edge electrification, powertrain, thermal and mobility electronics products, among others, that change how the world moves. In developing such solutions, the company’s 162,000 global employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. DENSO spent around 7.7 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. For more information about DENSO’s operations worldwide, visit https://www.denso.com/global.

About Quadric Inc.

Quadric Inc. is the leading licensor of fully programmable general-purpose neural processor IP (GPNPU) that runs both machine learning inference workloads and classic DSP and control algorithms. Quadric’s unified hardware and software architecture is optimized for on-device ML inference, providing up to 840 TOPs and automotive-grade safety enhanced versions. Learn more at: www.quadric.io