Morphing Machines

Morphing Machines Pvt Ltd is a fabless semiconductor company operating out of Bangalore, India, that provides intellectual property (IP) products and solutions. The company was established in 2006, emerging from the Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. Its founding team consists of Dr. Ranjani Narayan, Dr. S.K. Nandy, and Deepak Shapeti. The founders' journey is deeply rooted in academia and extensive research. Dr. Nandy is a professor at IISc with over 35 years of research experience in VLSI design and high-performance computing. Dr. Narayan, his wife, complements this with her own 35 years of research and industry experience in computer and data-flow computing, having worked at institutions like MIT, TU Delft, and Hewlett-Packard. Their collective ambition was to create a futuristic processor. Deepak Shapeti, an alumnus of Stanford University, brings 15 years of experience in commercializing deep-tech products and leads the company as CEO.

The core of Morphing Machines' business is its patented REDEFINE™ technology, a massively parallel, many-core System-on-Chip (SoC) platform. This platform addresses the limitations of conventional processors by offering runtime reconfigurability, which allows it to adapt its hardware architecture on the fly to best suit a specific application's needs. This approach combines the flexibility of an FPGA with the performance and efficiency of an ASIC, enabling the creation of multiple domain-specific architectures on a single chip. The company’s business model revolves around licensing its semiconductor IP, systems, and solutions to clients worldwide. While the company has not yet established a steady revenue stream, it generates income from proof-of-concept projects with potential customers.

The REDEFINE™ processor is designed to accelerate a wide range of compute-intensive applications, including AI, machine learning, big data analytics, telecommunications, and high-performance computing. A key benefit is the significant reduction in power consumption and enhanced performance; for instance, preliminary tests showed a 45x performance improvement in diffusion algorithms. The architecture is highly scalable, supporting configurations from 16-cores up to 4K-cores without requiring software changes. Morphing Machines also provides a supporting software toolkit, including a proprietary compiler, to facilitate the integration and use of its hardware. The company has engaged with notable clients, including defense laboratories in India and the French aerospace manufacturer Safran. With the support of India's Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and a recent seed funding round of $2.76 million, Morphing Machines is poised to advance its go-to-market strategy and expand its team.

Keywords: fabless semiconductor, reconfigurable computing, many-core processor, System-on-Chip, SoC IP, REDEFINE, high-performance computing, dataflow computing, custom accelerators, RISC-V, parallel processing, semiconductor design, embedded systems, AI acceleration, telecom infrastructure, energy-efficient computing, hardware-software co-design, VLSI design, dynamic reconfiguration, domain-specific architecture