WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue University-led team has been named the winner of a new project to advance artificial intelligence hardware through the Microelectronic Commons program in collaboration with the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons (SCMC) hub.
Purdue’s project — CHEETA: CMOS+MRAM Hardware for Energy-Efficient AI — takes a CMOS+X approach and specifically leverages the unique capabilities of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) to Design an in-memory computing hardware fabric. This project pursues the transition from the lab to the factory of pioneering research that has been conducted at Purdue for more than a decade. This project brings together a strong team from academia, industry, and national laboratories with diverse strengths in semiconductors and microelectronics across materials, devices, circuits, architectures, and systems.
The project was announced on September 18 and is one of four projects funded by the Applied Research Institute. The ARI-led SCMC is one of eight ARI-led national hubs comprised of a diverse innovation ecosystem of partners driven to accelerate the expansion of America’s microelectronics infrastructure.
“This victory is an important milestone in microelectronics and semiconductors, from world-leading research and industry partnerships to transformative investments in infrastructure and pioneering education and workforce development programs,” said Purdue University President Moon Chan. “This reaffirms Purdue’s national leadership in the United States.” “Purdue is strongly committed to supporting the CHIPS Act and the U.S. Department of Defense’s ME Commons program to strengthen the economic prosperity of the Silicon Heartland and the national security of the United States.”
The Purdue-led team includes the following faculty from the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Anand Raghunathan, Silicon Valley ECE Professor. Sumeet Gupta, Elmore Associate Professor at ECE, and collaborative partners Everspin Technologies, Georgia Tech, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Michigan, and Northrop Grumman. The project will cost $21 million over four years.
“By combining the strengths of our partnerships with Argonne National Laboratory, NSWC Crane, government agencies, key industry partners, and leading academic institutions, we are embarking on groundbreaking projects that will push the boundaries of semiconductor innovation. ” said Karen Prout. Executive Vice President for Research at Purdue University. “The results of this collaboration will not only enhance the performance and resiliency of our defense technologies, but will also solidify our nation’s leadership in critical technological advancements that protect our nation and shape our defense future.”
Roy’s research is in partnership with the university’s Chip and AI Institute, an institute in the College of Engineering that focuses on AI and semiconductors, and the Physics AI Institute, a key focus area of the Purdue Computing Initiative. Purdue Computes emphasizes the university’s broad technology and computing environment.
The CHEETA project aims to significantly improve energy efficiency and sensor-to-decision latency compared to current commercial standards. These capabilities are expected to benefit defense applications by providing highly efficient AI hardware solutions with significantly improved “size, weight, and power” (SWaP) metrics.
“The CHEETA project represents an innovative leap forward in microelectronics, fusing CMOS and MRAM technologies to address the critical challenges of energy efficiency and latency in AI hardware,” Roy said. “Our collaboration on the CHEETA initiative underscores our commitment to advancing MRAM technology and integrating it with cutting-edge CMOS processes, paving the way for revolutionary improvements in the performance and efficiency of AI systems. I am.”
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research institution that exemplifies excellence at scale. Ranked among the top 10 public universities and two in the nation’s top four, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge at a quality and scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study in a variety of ways and locations at Purdue, including nearly 50,000 students who study in person at our West Lafayette campus. With a focus on affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition for the 13th consecutive year. Learn how Purdue continues its relentless pursuit of the next big leap, including Indianapolis’ first integrated urban campus, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes, and the One Health Initiative. Visit https://www.purdue.edu/. President/Strategic Initiatives.
