Semidynamics launches RISC-V SDK, adds ONNX Runtime support
Semidynamics in Spain has integrated support for its RISC-V AI accelerator hardware IP into the ONNX Runtime environment with the launch of a software development kit (SDK).
This allows the Aliado SDK to provide debugging and fine-tuning of AI applications running on the custom RISC-V vector engines. The ‘all-in-one’ IP can be integrated into chip designs to accelerate AI applications where the portability of the software, including large language models (LLMs) with up to 7bn parameters is a key factor.
The Aliado SDK provides a complete software development solution including a compilation and debugging toolchain, emulators for functional testing of applications and a highly optimized library of common routines, all integrated into a single development environment.
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The ONNX project, originally developed by Microsoft, defines a common standard for AI models and all major AI frameworks support importing or exporting ONNX-format models. Most open-source AI model repositories, such as HuggingFace, already provide models in the ONNX format enabling ONNX users to import practically any model currently available, without any model compilation step.
On top of the ONNX format, the ONNX-Runtime can then take ONNX models and execute them in a variety of hardware. It also provides a suite of tools to perform model optimization and even quantization.
The SDK uses an open standard Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and LLVM compilers, code optimization and auto-vectorization. The toolchain is integrated with the IDE but is compatible with any IDE of choice.
Any RISC-V compiled code can then be functionally validated from x86 workstations using QEMU or Spike emulators, modified to support Semidynamics’ custom instructions. QEMU provides fast functional validation and is capable of both system and user mode emulations, whereas Spike is the official RISC-V International’s simulator. The SDK also facilitates bare metal development for Spike, for end-users targeting embedded systems.
The Kernel Library is also included, providing the integrated support in ONNX-Runtime. This is a collection of functions operating on multi-dimensional data with a particular focus on AI that was created to make use of the performance of the Semidynamics RISC-V hardware.
A large number of crucial operations, such as Matrix multiplications, transpositions, activation functions, and more, have been optimized for quick development of efficient AI applications running on the SemiDynamics IP.
“Our philosophy is to always make it very easy for end-users to use our products. Our support for ONNX-RT and Aliado SDK will enable them to rapidly develop and test their software on their PCs to see how well it will perform on our hardware. This really speeds up time to market as it can all be perfected in simulation before any hardware is actually created,” said Roger Espasa, CEO of Semidynamics.
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