Ultra-low power NPU SoC - Atomiq - Ambiq
January 19, 2026
Atomiq - Ambitious Edge AI
The Atomiq SoC enables a new class of always-on edge AI through SPOT, delivering high-performance NPU workloads with unmatched power efficiency for advanced audio, language, vision, and reasoning.
Ambiq announced Atomiq, the highly anticipated system-on-chip (SoC) integrating a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) designed to enable real-time, always-on artificial intelligence at the edge. Built on Ambiq’s Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT) platform, Atomiq aims to establish a new benchmark for energy efficiency in demanding edge AI applications.
High performance meets power efficiency
As AI models continue to grow in complexity, manufacturers face a critical challenge: scaling device intelligence without compromising battery life or increasing thermal and system costs. Atomiq is architected to address this challenge at a system level, optimizing compute performance and power consumption to enable sustained AI processing at the edge.
Key Features:
- World’s First SPOT-Optimized NPU
Atomiq is the first SoC to leverage sub- and near-threshold voltage operation for AI acceleration, delivering industry-leading energy efficiency for complex edge AI workloads.
- >200 GOPS of On-Device AI Performance
Integration of the Arm® Ethos™-U85 NPU supports sparsity and on-the-fly decompression, enabling compute-intensive workloads, including computer vision, multilingual speech recognition, and sensory models, directly on-device.
- Dynamic Power Scaling for Always-on Intelligence
SPOT-based ultra-wide range dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) enables operation at lower voltage and lower power than previously possible, making room in the power budget for unprecedented levels of intelligence.
- Robust Software Platform for Faster Time-to-Market
Ambiq’s Helia™ AI platform, together with its AI development kits (ADK), and the modular neuralSPOT® SDK, delivers a tightly integrated hardware-software stack that is designed to enable higher performance in a smaller memory footprint at much lower power, significantly shorten development cycles, and provide energy-optimized AI deployment out of the box.
The manufacturer advantage
The Atomiq SoC expands Ambiq’s edge AI portfolio by enabling a new class of high-performance, battery-powered devices that were previously impractical due to power and thermal constraints. Representative use cases include:
- Smart Cameras & Security: Always-on, high-resolution object recognition and tracking without frequent recharging or active cooling.
- AR Glasses & Wearables: Conversational voice-based interfaces with on-board text-to-speech synthesis for all-day use.
- Industrial Edge & Robotics: High-fidelity semantic audio processing and advanced data analysis on the factory floor, operating independently of cloud connectivity or fixed power sources.
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