QuickLogic Acquires SensiML SaaS AI Company

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK), a developer of ultra-low power multi-core voice-enabled SoCs, embedded FPGA IP, and Endpoint AI solutions, announced today that it has acquired SensiML Corporation.  Under the terms of the agreement, the details of which are not disclosed, QuickLogic will fund the acquisition in shares of common stock.  SensiML will operate as a division of QuickLogic and continue to develop, expand, and optimize its platform-independent software solutions to support SoCs from other semiconductor companies as well as QuickLogic SoCs, QuickAItm Platforms and licensees of QuickLogic's ArcticProtm embedded FPGA IP (eFPGA).

Initiated as a software group within Intel® Corporation, SensiML's founders acquired the technology and formed SensiML as an independent company in 2017.  SensiML has since developed strategic and ongoing SaaS (Software as a Service) contracts with customers in its targeted IoT and consumer markets. 

Over six years in the making, the SensiML Analytics Toolkit is an end-to-end software suite that provides OEMs a straightforward process for developing pattern matching sensor algorithms using machine learning (AI) technology that are optimized for ultra-low power consumption.  The SensiML Analytics Toolkit enables OEMs to quickly and easily leverage the power of local AI in edge, endpoint and wearable designs without the need for significant Data Science or Firmware Engineering resources.

The SensiML Analytics Toolkit automatically optimizes AI models to minimize power consumption in targeted SoCs and is designed specifically to leverage the inherent benefits of heterogeneous multi-core SoC architectures and eFPGA technology.  The processor and silicon platforms currently supported by the SensiML Analytics Toolkit include:

Heterogeneous core SoCs

• QuickLogic QuickAI Platform
• QuickLogic EOSAI (soon to be announced)

Arm® Cortex®-M architecture SoCs with CMSIS DSP library optimizations

• Nordic Semiconductor nRF52
• STMicro STM32

Arm Cortex-A architecture SoCs with CMSIS DSP library optimizations

• Raspberry Pi 3

X86 architecture

• Intel® Atom®, Core microprocessors

"From its inception, SensiML has focused on enabling the practical and efficient implementation of AI by companies that don't have the significant data science resources commonly required to respond to the increasing market demand for localized AI," said Chris Rogers, CEO of SensiML.  "QuickLogic shares our vision that the SensiML Analytics Toolkit, which allows companies to quickly and easily leverage the benefits of AI in their designs, should remain processor-independent.  By joining forces with QuickLogic, we believe we will accelerate our quest to democratize the benefits of localized AI across a vast number of applications."

"With the acquisition of SensiML, we have added a stream of SaaS revenue that we anticipate will grow significantly in the coming years as well as new points of leverage for our core semiconductor and IP businesses," said Brian Faith, President and CEO of QuickLogic.  "The SensiML Analytic Toolkit is a unique solution that addresses what we believe is a pent-up demand to incorporate the benefits of local AI in a wide variety of consumer, edge and endpoint devices.  In many of these applications our proprietary ArcticPro eFPGA IP can play a critical role by enabling end-product designs to adapt to changes in accelerator algorithms that are driven by the integrated AI capabilities of our now complete end-to-end solution."

Webcast and Conference Call

QuickLogic will host a webcast and conference call January 4, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) to discuss details of the transaction. To access this call, dial US toll free: 1-877-704-4237 / International: 1-201-493-6718. A live webcast of the conference call and presentation will be accessible from the investor relations section of the QuickLogic website at https://ir.quicklogic.com and will be archived and available after the call until July 2, 2019. A recording will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call until January 18, 2019. To access the recording, dial US toll free: 1-877-660-6853 / International: 1-201-612-7415 and enter conference ID 13686176.

About QuickLogic: (NASDAQ: QUIK)
QuickLogic develops low power, multi-core semiconductor platforms and Intellectual Property (IP) for Artificial Intelligence (AI), voice and sensor processing. The solutions include an embedded FPGA IP (eFPGA) for hardware acceleration and pre-processing, and heterogeneous multi-core SoCs that integrate eFPGA with other processors and peripherals. The Analytics Toolkit from SensiML completes the 'full stack' end-to-end solution with accurate sensor algorithms using AI technology. The full range of platforms, software tools and eFPGA IP enables the practical and efficient adoption of AI, voice and sensor processing across the multitude of mobile, wearable, hearable, consumer, industrial, edge and endpoint IoT applications. For more information, visit www.quicklogic.com and http://blog.quicklogic.com.

About SensiML
SensiML (say "sen-seh-mul") was initiated as a software group within Intel Corporation, SensiML's founders acquired the technology and formed SensiML as an independent company in 2017.  Over six years in the making, SensiML offers a cutting-edge software suite that that enables the quick and easy generation of app-specific pattern recognition code that transforms rich connected sensors into smart actionable event detectors.  With this, even companies that don't have significant data science resources, can incorporate the benefits of local AI in a wide variety of IoT and consumer products.

As a platform-independent solution for intelligent embedded algorithm development, the SensiML Analytics Toolkit provides a full end-to-end development platform spanning data collection, hardware optimized feature engineering and algorithm generation, profiling, simulation, and test/validation.  SensiML toolkit currently supports Arm Cortex M class and higher microcontroller cores, Intel x86 instruction set processors, and specific heterogeneous core optimizations for QuickLogic SoCs and QuickAI Platforms.  For more information, latest hardware support and features please visit www.sensiml.com.

QuickLogic and logo are registered trademarks and QuickAI is a trademark of QuickLogic. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

SOURCE QuickLogic Corporation