Take a Closer Look at Machine Learning Chip Maker Mythic

Before it started scampering after the machine learning chip market in 2016, but after it was founded at the University of Michigan in 2012, Mythic was trying to build embedded chips that would let surveillance drones run software modeled after the human brain. Part of the funding for the company, then known as Isocline, came from the Department of Defense. But after relaunching two years ago, Mythic refocused on embedded devices like autonomous cars and security cameras. Now the company is only a few months from sampling chips based on an aggressively ambitious architecture, which uses analog computing inside flash memory cells to accelerate machine learning tasks like facial recognition. Helping it over the finish line is $40 million raised last month from new and existing investors, including SoftBank Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Lux Capital.