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BrainChip Advances its Position as a Leading Artificial Intelligence Provider with an Exclusive License for Next-Generation Neural Network Technology

Announcement posted by BrainChip Holdings Ltd 20 Mar 2017

Highlights:

- Agreement with Toulouse Tech Transfer and the CERCO research centre, to license the exclusive rights to the JAST learning rules.

- JAST technology will be implemented on BrainChip’s proprietary SNAP technology.

- License further solidifies BrainChip’s position as a leader in the field of Neural Networking and Artificial Intelligence technology and solutions.

BrainChip Holdings Ltd. (ASX: BRN), (“BrainChip” or the “Company”), is a leading developer of software and hardware accelerated solutions for Advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications. The Company has developed a revolutionary new Spiking Neuron Adaptive Processor (SNAP) technology that can learn autonomously, evolve and associate information just like the human brain. The technology, which is proprietary, is fast, completely digital, and consumes very low power. Target markets include Civil and Commercial Surveillance as well as Machine Learning.

Today, BrainChip announced that it has signed an agreement with French-based technology transfer company Toulouse Tech Transfer, to license the exclusive rights to the JAST learning rules and algorithms developed by CERCO (Brain and Cognition Research Center), a preeminent public research lab based in Toulouse, France. The groundbreaking JAST technology significantly enhances the Company’s existing neural network design and will be implemented on the Company’s proprietary Spiking Neural Adaptive Processor (SNAP).

The addition of the JAST technology to the SNAP processor enables BrainChip to offer a compact, and easy to use commercial alternative to GPU processors for visual analytics. The license provides the Company significant improvements over existing deep learning designs. These benefits will allow BrainChip customers to reduce development cycles and significantly improve their time-to-market with new products.

BrainChip President and CEO Louis DiNardo commented, “BrainChip has developed a suite of software and hardware products to support a wide range of applications and customer requirements. The JAST technology adds to our offering of SNvision, a software solution that runs on any Windows platform and our hardware solution, SNAPvision, that will be available in the third quarter of 2017. SNAPvision will implement existing learning rules and algorithms on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The SNAPvision product can process a significantly larger number of video streams than the existing SNvision software only solution and will provide end-users with a wide range of analytics. The ability to learn on the device, and at near instant speeds sets our technology apart from other solutions that require long training cycles. The JAST learning rules will provide an exciting enhancement to our existing product offerings.”

Toulouse Tech Transfer president and CEO Pierre Dufresne adds, “the JAST technology, a new unsupervised learning algorithm developed by Simon Thorpe and his team at CERCO, is a complementary approach to the traditional deep learning techniques. We believe that our alliance with BrainChip and its French subsidiary Spikenet Technology will enable a wide range of breakthrough applications. This illustrates the dynamism of our region in the AI field.”.

The terms of the exclusive license have not been disclosed but costs related to the transaction in 2017 are expected to be immaterial relative to the Company’s total expenses.

About BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN)

BrainChip is a leading provider of software and hardware accelerated solutions for Advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications. The Company’s Spiking Neural Adaptive Processor (SNAP) can learn autonomously with a small sample set and provide real-time information, data analytics and knowledge in image and video processing applications, high frequency data streams for financial analysis and event, speech, and speaker recognition from audio sources. BrainChip’s SNAP technology can quickly learn, recognise, and track events in real time from multiple sources and identify repeating patterns in complex data streams. The Company currently provides software and hardware accelerated solutions that address high-performance requirements in Civil Surveillance, Facial Recognition, and Visual Inspection systems. Future solutions include audio analytics and deep learning for financial and other data intensive applications. www.brainchipinc.com.

About Toulouse Tech Transfer

Toulouse Tech Transfer is a technology transfer company and its core business is to invest in technology maturing programs based on public research results, which covers intellectual property and legal issues, marketing and technical operations. Toulouse Tech Transfer also acts as a service company for academia providing consultancy and training in areas such as technology transfer and IP.

About CERCO

The Brain and Cognition Research Center (Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition - CERCO) in Toulouse, France is a research unit belonging to the CNRS and the Université Paul Sabatier. It has around 100 members, including 35 permanent researchers and support staff, working on the brain mechanisms underlying a wide range of cognitive functions, including visual and auditory perception, attention, memory, motor control and higher mental states including consciousness.

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