Ubitium, a German startup, announced that it is developing a universal chip that combines CPU, NPU, GPU, DSP and FPGA. What makes this Ubitium chip unique is that according to them, each transistor used can be programmed to function as a CPU, NPU, GPU, DSP or FPGA depending on the requirements of the task to be performed. It will also use the RISC-V architecture.
Current chips such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite have combined the CPU, GPU, NPU and DSP in a single SOC. But the semiconductor used for the NPU can only be used for artificial intelligence (AI) processing tasks. When not in use, this part of the chip seems to be wasted and just takes up space. This universal chip will also reduce production costs and energy consumption.
In the initial stage, the Ubitium universal chip will be used for edge computing with plans to upgrade it to be used on data processing and AI chips in the future.
Ubitium's prototype universal chip is targeted to be demonstrated by 2026. Although Ubitium is a new company, it has former employees from Intel, Nvidia, and Texas Instruments who have extensive expertise in producing chips.