Let’s talk Silicom Connectivity Solutions, Ltd. and Hailo in the context of AI at the edge.
But first, a smidge of background on each:
Silicom is an industry provider of high-performance networking and data infrastructure solutions (that are designed primarily to improve performance and efficiencies in cloud and data center environments. These solutions increase throughput, decrease latency, and boost overall server and networking appliances’ performances. In Silicom’s words, its solutions for “high-density networking, high-speed fabric switching, offloading and acceleration – which utilize a range of cutting-edge silicon technologies, plus FPGA-based solutions – are ideal for scaling-up and scaling-out cloud infrastructures.” Silicom products are used by major cloud players, service providers, telcos and OEMs. (e.g. its server adapters, edge networking solutions, FPGA cards, x86 open appliances, bypass switches and TAPs, etc.)
Then, Hailo. Founded in 2017, the team at Hailo believes that AI can truly “help us create a better, safer, more productive and more convenient world.” However, for that to come to fruition, AI needs to be available at scale for it to long-term improve applications like those found in smart cities, in automotive, manufacturing, retail and agribusiness. And so, Hailo has developed AI processors that are dedicated to AI tasks on edge devices. Its unique, patented silicon architecture enables efficient, high-performance AI processing at a low power consumption (and at a low cost). Hailo believes that AI should be easy to use and deploy on everything from intelligent cameras, on-road and off-road vehicles, autonomous robots and cobots, and much more.
After reading that, it may seem like Hailo is more positioned to helm AI-centric projects than Silicom is.
But how that is changing is precisely the story here.
Last week, Silicom tapped Hailo for a new partnership. Together, the two are expected to debut a new line of Edge AI products that integrate Hailo’s AI accelerators into the existing Silicom Edge platform, thereby resolving myriad performance challenges for solutions at the edge.
Per Liron Eizenman, Silicom’s CEO:
"We are excited to finally bring this powerful new Edge AI solution, our first AI-focused product, to the market. By integrating Hailo's groundbreaking chips into our products, we are making it cost-effective to move behavior analytics, human intrusion detection, facial recognition and vehicle analytics to the edge. This will help our customers unlock new use cases and provide new revenue streams and more value to their customers. In fact, we are already engaged in POCs and in discussions with customers on different use cases.”
Adding to this, Hailo's Chief Technology Officer Avi Bau said:
“By integrating Hailo's top performing AI accelerators into Silicom's Edge platforms, we can deliver unmatched AI inference performance, enabling real-time decision-making and advanced object detection and classification at the edge. The growing range of Silicom Edge products empowered by the Hailo AI accelerators will provide coverage for many Edge AI use cases.”