-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLearning to Speak ‘Fab’
Our expert contributors clear up many of the miscommunication problems between PCB designers and their fab and assembly stakeholders. As you will see, a little extra planning early in the design cycle can go a long way toward maintaining open lines of communication with the fab and assembly folks.
Training New Designers
Where will we find the next generation of PCB designers and design engineers? Once we locate them, how will we train and educate them? What will PCB designers of the future need to master to deal with tomorrow’s technology?
The Designer of the Future
Our expert contributors peer into their crystal balls and offer their thoughts on the designers and design engineers of tomorrow, and what their jobs will look like.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Sondrel’s SFA 100 is ideal for AI at the Edge
July 31, 2024 | SondrelEstimated reading time: 2 minutes

Sondrel (AIM: SND), a leading provider of ultra-complex custom chips for leading global technology brands, has optimised its SFA 100 to make it ideal for battery-powered, AI at the Edge applications. The SFA 100 is one of the five architectural platforms in the company’s Architecting the Future chip design platform which provides a ready-made design baseline that the company uses to build a bespoke solution for every customer much faster than starting from scratch each time.
“The drive to AI everywhere was clear at this year’s CES,” said John Chubb, Sondrel’s CEO. “It enables companies to create better, more feature-rich products but augmenting with AI is not a simple task. It requires much more powerful processor cores than a standard version of a device to handle the large amounts of data involved which can’t just be added onto an existing design. It requires a design from scratch to make sure that the right processors, memory, DSPs, NoC and other components all fit together against the target Power, Performance, Area and Timing specifications.
“This is where our Architecting the Future approach can save a significant amount of time and engineering effort. We don’t start from scratch every time as we use existing, proven blocks and layouts. By using one of our pre-defined starting architectures, such as the SFA 100, we can rapidly tailor this to create a unique, custom solution for each customer. Effectively we are re-using a framework or chassis and scalable entities such as cores that we have used before along with tools, flows, project management, etc. which reduces risk and, most importantly, time to silicon so that the customer can be fast to market with the AI empowered device.”
The SFA 100 uses an Arm® subsystem with a choice of Arm cores and the option of a security subsystem. Its low power requirement makes it the ideal platform for battery-powered edge AI applications such as smart home, smart factory, and sensor fusion devices. The device provides the ability to integrate a machine-learning engine supporting a variety of inference based ‘smarts’ such as voice activation, image classification, gesture recognition, filtering, etc. A radio subsystem such as a Bluetooth IP block or WiFi can also be added if required. Customer’s IP and any third-party IP can be included as Sondrel has the ability to wrap IP blocks so that they have all the necessary interfaces to just drop onto the chassis. More powerful solutions can be created by using the SFA 200 or SFA 300 as starting points.
The Edge AI market is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 33.5% to reach $76 billion by 2031 according to a report by Transparency Market Research. The key is the drive to process data locally and thus eliminate the latency from transmitting the data to a centralised cloud server for processing. Applications range from industry 4.0, where it is used to provide real-time decision making, to devices such as drones, smartphones, cars, etc.
Suggested Items
Raymond E. Pritchard IPC Hall of Fame Award: Peter Bigelow
04/04/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007IPC’s most prestigious award honors an individual’s long-term distinguished service and contributions to IPC and the electronics manufacturing industry. Peter Bigelow is president of FTG Circuits in Haverhill, Mass., focusing on the military, RF/microwave, and aerospace markets. He also has extensive experience in general management, marketing, operations, and sales with large publicly traded and privately held manufacturing companies in the printed circuit, electronics, and instrumentation industries.
Increase in Share Capital and Number of Shares in HANZA
04/03/2025 | HANZAOn March 3, HANZA completed the acquisition of Leden Group Oy. Part of the purchase price consisted of 2,300,000 newly issued shares in HANZA AB.
IPC APEX EXPO Newcomer: Faith DeSaulnier of TTM Technologies
04/03/2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamDuring the Newcomer’s Welcome Reception at IPC APEX EXPO, the I-Connect Editorial Team spoke with several first-time attendees. The following is our interview with Faith DeSaulnier, a process engineer based at TTM Technologies’ facility in Forest Grove, Oregon.
My Top 10 Highlights from IPC APEX EXPO 2025
04/03/2025 | Chris Mitchell, IPC VP, Global Government RelationsEvery year, I am reminded what an exciting and fast-paced whirlwind IPC APEX EXPO is—the friends you run into, the new people you meet, the innovations you encounter, and the fascinating discussions you dive into. It’s certainly true that our industry is driven by searchers and problem-solvers, creating endless opportunities at APEX EXPO to connect, collaborate, and shape the future.
TRI Test Solutions at INNOELECTRO 2025
04/02/2025 | TRIAnytest will join INNOELECTRO 2025, held at BOK Sportcsarnok from April 8 – 10, 2025, to showcase TRI's Test Solution.