From Dorm Room Beginnings to a Pioneer in the AI Chip Revolution: How Etched is Collaborating with Rambus to Achieve Their Vision

In the fast-paced world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a groundbreaking startup is making waves with its innovative approach to AI chip design. Etched, founded by Harvard dropouts Gavin Uberti, Chris Zhu, and Robert Wachen in 2022, has set out to transform the AI industry with a bold vision: creating specialized chips designed to accelerate AI inference.

The Birth of a Vision

What began as a school project quickly evolved into a mission to revolutionize AI computing. Bonding over their shared passion for building cool things and fascination with operating models at scale, they stumbled upon an idea that would change their lives forever. The trio realized that the future of AI lay in specialized chips for running generative AI models to deliver higher performance when compared to existing solutions. Driven by their conviction that transformers would dominate the AI landscape, they made the daring decision to drop out of Harvard and fully commit to their startup. Their vision was clear: to create a chip that could outperform general-purpose GPUs in running transformer models, revolutionizing the AI industry.

Early Challenges

Like many early-stage startups, Etched faced numerous challenges as they embarked on their journey. Some of the most pressing issues included:

1. Building the Right Team: Assembling a group of talented engineers and AI experts who shared their vision and could bring their ideas to life was crucial.
2. Product Definition: Designing a chip specifically for transformer models required overcoming intricate technical challenges and pushing the boundaries of existing technology.
3. Market Validation: Convincing potential customers and partners to get behind their conviction was essential to maintain the course.
4. Resource Management: Balancing limited resources while striving for rapid development and innovation posed a constant challenge.

Enter Rambus: A Collaborative Partnership

As Etched worked to overcome these challenges, they found a valuable partner in Rambus, a leader in high-performance chip and silicon IP solutions. The expertise of Rambus in memory and interface technologies proved instrumental in helping Etched achieve their ambitious goals for their system-on-chip (SoC) design. With their silicon-proven, high-performance memory controller IP cores, Rambus provided Etched with the IP they needed to optimize their chip for AI/ML applications.

Overcoming Technical Hurdles

One of the key challenges Etched faced was achieving the right balance of Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) for their SoC in solving the memory bottleneck problem. Rambus offered Etched an HBM memory controller along with integration services to integrate the controller with a PHY to realize a complete memory sub-system. This integrated solution significantly reduced implementation complexity, allowing Etched to focus on their core innovation.

Achieving Goals and Pushing Boundaries

With support from Rambus, Etched was able to:

1. Enhance Performance: The high-bandwidth, low-latency memory solutions provided by Rambus enabled Etched to achieve the performance targets necessary for running complex transformer models.
2. Optimize Power Consumption: By leveraging efficient interface IP from Rambus, Etched could design their chip to deliver exceptional performance while consuming less energy than traditional GPUs.
3. Minimize Chip Area: Etched optimize their chip’s footprint without sacrificing functionality by leveraging the expertise of Rambus in designing compact, high-performance interfaces.
4. Accelerate Time-to-Market: The silicon-proven IP and comprehensive support from Rambus significantly reduced development time and risks, allowing Etched to bring their innovative chip to market faster.

A Bright Future Ahead

The Etched story is a testament to the power of innovation and perseverance. With continued support from Rambus with its cutting-edge IP solutions, Etched is well-positioned to challenge established players in the AI chip market and potentially reshape the future of artificial intelligence computing. Their first chip, Sohu, promises to deliver 10x performance gains when compared to the leading GPU in the market today.

As AI continues to evolve and transform industries across the globe, collaborations between innovative startups like Etched and established technology leaders like Rambus will be crucial in driving the next wave of technological advancements. The success story of Etched serves as an inspiration to other early-stage startups, demonstrating that with the right vision, partners, and technology, it’s possible to turn bold ideas into reality and make a lasting impact by delivering innovative solutions in a rapidly changing AI landscape.