Semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have launched a four-year joint research programme to develop low-power edge computing technologies for industrial IoT (IIoT).

The ST-NUS HELIX Corporate Lab will focus on memory-centric architectures and advanced silicon designs. By processing data directly on devices rather than relying on cloud infrastructure, the resulting hardware aims to improve energy efficiency, reduce latency and maintain operational resilience for IoT sensors, robotics and industrial automation.

The research will utilise STMicroelectronics’ 18-nanometre Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FD-SOI) technology and embedded Phase Change Memory. This in-memory computing approach integrates dense, non-volatile storage directly alongside the processing architecture, reducing the off-chip data movement that typically drains power in memory-bound IoT workloads.

“ST’s strength as an integrated device manufacturer lies in our ability to bring together advanced silicon technologies, embedded memory, circuit design, heterogeneous integration and chiplets,” said Laurent Malier, Executive Vice President of Global Technology R&D at STMicroelectronics. “Through HELIX, we are creating an industrially relevant foundation to explore differentiated AI computing technologies and accelerate the translation of promising research into scalable semiconductor solutions.”

STMicroelectronics will provide NUS researchers with a dedicated design chassis based on its proprietary silicon technology. This platform allows engineers to bypass foundational infrastructure building and focus directly on validating new accelerator concepts for industrial deployment.

NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye noted the importance of the collaboration for the sector. “By combining NUS’ research strengths with STMicroelectronics’ industrial capabilities, we are building not only advanced, cutting-edge edge AI hardware, but also the talent and ecosystem that will help define the future of Singapore’s semiconductor and AI industries,” he said.