Inference inside the product.
On-device inference is a memory problem before it is a compute problem.
An embedded target has a fixed heap, a fixed flash budget and a thermal envelope set by an enclosure someone else designed. Getting a model to run at all is straightforward. Getting it to run inside those three budgets, every frame, without a cache miss taking the deadline, is the engineering.
We do model authoring, quantisation, runtime bring-up on bare metal, and the arena and pool sizing that follows from instrumented measurement rather than estimation.
Every arena, pool and scratch buffer the runtime will ever hold, decided before the first frame runs.
Model weights, runtime and application, inside the partition the bootloader gives you.
One hop at 16 kHz. Miss it once and the output is audible; miss it regularly and the product is broken.
Three fixed allowances, none of them negotiable, all of them known on day one. Everything else about the work follows from deciding what goes inside them.
Module
A compute module with a defined mechanical, electrical and thermal interface, to be designed into a host board.
Reference board
A carrier that exercises the module in the intended configuration, for bring-up and certification work.
Model and runtime
Model authoring, quantisation and on-device runtime, held to the memory and latency budget.
Market access
Conformity documentation and test-report packages for placement in the EU and the US.
A consumer device carries more regulation than a data centre does.
This surprises teams coming from infrastructure. Placing a connected consumer product on the EU market engages the Cyber Resilience Act, the Radio Equipment Directive cybersecurity requirements where there is a radio, and the Data Act design obligations. In the United States it engages Part 15 Class B limits and a testing laboratory listing. We build the documentation alongside the hardware rather than after it.
| Product cybersecurity | Cyber Resilience Act[src]Vulnerability handling, software bill of materials, support across the product lifetime |
|---|---|
| Radio equipment | RED delegated regulation[src]EN 18031 family, where the product contains a radio |
| Connected product data | Data Act[src]Design obligations for access to product-generated data |
| Equipment safety | EN / IEC / UL 62368-1[src] |
| US emissions | FCC Part 15 Class B[src]Residential-environment limits |
| US workplace listing | NRTL[src] |