BrainChip Unveils AKD1500 SPI Chip, Bringing Neuromorphic AI to Everyday Edge Devices
AKD1500 SPI pairs with the microcontroller, opening Akida AI to the high-volume MCU market
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LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BrainChip Holdings Ltd. (ASX: BRN, OTCQX: BRCHF, ADR: BCHPY), a global leader in ultra-low-power, fully digital, event-based neuromorphic AI, today announced the AKD1500 SPI, expanding its AKD1500 family with a co-processor that brings Akida neuromorphic AI to wearables, smart home devices and other microcontroller-based edge products. Using the SPI interface already found in most microcontrollers, AKD1500 SPI lets device makers add AI with a single chip rather than redesign around a new processor.
AKD1500 SPI’s standout feature is edge learning, enabling devices to learn new words, sounds, users or patterns directly on the chip, without sending data to the cloud or retraining the model. Like every Akida processor, it also runs several AI tasks on one chip.
Alongside the AKD1500 PCIe for M.2 and multi-chip designs, the AKD1500 family lets device makers run the same AI in anything from a smartwatch to a multi-chip edge system with a SPI interface.
“Our customers demand reflex-like responsiveness and efficiency. They measure every milliwatt and every millisecond,” said Ivan Projić, co-founder and CEO of Neuromorphyx. “On BrainBoard1500 and NeuroReflex, we’ve seen the AKD1500 run neural networks over SPI within the power and size limits of real embedded products.”
Karlo Mikualco, co-founder and CTO of Neuromorphyx, added, “With its SPI interface, the AKD1500 lets teams bring that efficiency, plus on-chip learning, into robotics, industrial and space-grade systems without replacing the host processor they already trust.”
Add AI without replacing the processor
Most everyday devices, such as smartwatches, doorbells and factory sensors, already have a microcontroller, which is built to control the device. Adding AI usually means moving to a larger, more expensive processor and redesigning the entire product.
The AKD1500 SPI avoids that by using SPI, a standard interface most microcontrollers already have, letting device makers add one chip to their existing design.
The AKD1500 SPI works alongside the MCU as a dedicated AI processor. The MCU controls the device, relaying sensor data to the AKD1500 SPI, which runs the full neural network and sends back the result, such as a recognized word or a detected fault.
Running the model on the device also removes the cloud round trip, including latency, the loss of AI when connectivity drops and the risk of data leaving the product. Voice, sensor and device-health data stay on the device.
“The AKD1500 SPI brings brain-inspired AI into NEXA EEG Glasses, designed for everyday wear,” stated Yazin Al Mandhari, COO at Onsor. “It’s an important step in our work to help people living with epilepsy and their care teams better understand brain activity beyond the clinic.”
Built for the multi-billion-unit microcontroller market
Microcontrollers are among the most widely shipped chips in the world, and until recently almost none of them could learn on-chip once a product shipped. ABI Research forecasts that chipset shipments of TinyML AI, which are lightweight machine learning models deployed directly onto ultra-low-power microcontrollers, will surpass 4.1 billion units by 2031, with dedicated AI processors the fastest-growing part of that segment.
“We built the AKD1500 family around how products are actually designed,” said Steve Brightfield, chief product officer at BrainChip. “The AKD1500 SPI connects to the MCU a team already uses, and the AKD1500 PCIe serves systems that need more performance. Both run the same models with the same tools, so customers can grow without starting over.”
The AKD1500 PCIe serves performance-driven systems and multi-chip designs; the AKD1500 SPI opens the high-volume microcontroller market across consumer, industrial and healthcare products.
The AKD1500 SPI is available now from the BrainChip Shop, its channel partner DigiKey or through sales (sales@brainchip.com).
About BrainChip Holdings Ltd.
BrainChip is the worldwide leader in edge AI on-chip processing and learning. The company’s first-to-market, fully digital, event-based AI processor, Akida™, uses neuromorphic principles to analyze only essential sensor inputs at the point of acquisition, processing data with unmatched efficiency, precision and energy economy. BrainChip’s Sequora™ is an efficient digital AI processor for GenAI and other large models using state-space architectures. BrainChip’s technology is deployed across industries including aerospace, defense, industrial IoT, healthcare, consumer devices, and wearables. Explore more at www.brainchip.com.
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