When Neologic began building more energy-efficient CPUs for AI servers, industry people told founders Avi Messica and Ziv Leshem that their ideas were not viable.
“Most of the people we’ve met say it’s impossible,” Messica told TechCrunch. “At the time, some of them said innovation was impossible because logic integration couldn’t be innovated. You can’t innovate with circuit design. You’re too mature.”
Nevertheless, Israel-based new scientists are set up to prove they’re wrong, and Fabless Semiconductor Startup is building a server CPU that uses more simplified logic (how to process information).
Neologic was founded in 2021 by CEO Messica and CTO Leshem. The CTO has 50 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Leshem worked on chip design for decades with companies such as Intel and Synopsis, but Messica focused on circuit design and manufacturing side.
“We co-founded the company over four years ago because Moore’s law died,” Messica said, referring to an observation in the 1960s that the number of microchips transistors doubled every two years.
About a decade ago, Messica said companies stopped trying to scale their transistors to size because they became so small.
But he says Neologic wasn’t convinced. The startup works with two hyperscalar partners on server CPU design, but Messica does not disclose the name. The company plans to use single-core test chips by the end of the year and hopes to have server CPUs in the data center by 2027.
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Neologic recently raised a $10 million Series A round led by Kompas VC with participation from M Ventures, Maniv Mobility and Lool Ventures. The company will use the funds to expand its engineering team and continue developing the CPU.
The funding round is because data centers are strained with existing energy resources, so no relief is visible. The ongoing AI boom includes data center power usage, which is expected to double over the next four years.
Messica hopes that Neologic’s energy-saving potential will help make server CPUs too attractive for the market to ignore.
“It affects everything,” Messica said of the potential energy savings. “Talking about next-generation data centers will affect the cost of construction. It can shave about 30% of the cost, which affects the amount of capital you invest. It affects the use of water. It has an impact on society, and it was basically a vision about five years ago.”
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