Bendable non-silicon RISC-V CPU demoed running while wrapped around a pencil
Cambridge-based Pragmatic Semiconductor has demonstrated its Flex-RV bendable non-silicon RISC-V processor. On Wednesday, the firm published a blog, Nature paper, and video to showcase what it calls “the world’s first 32-bit microprocessor in a flexible technology that is fully functional while flexed.” Pragmatic also boasted that the Flex-RV is machine learning capable and can be produced for less than a dollar.
In the video, you can see a Flex-RX processor sample being wrapped around a pencil while executing simple commands. The demo shows that the physically flexible general-purpose RISC-V processor can be coiled tighter than a 5mm radius. Then, we see it put through some tensile bending, flattened, and compressive bending before being unfurled again. Programs can always continue to execute without missing a beat (or crashing or freezing).
Flex-RV builds on Pragmatic’s prior flexible electronics works, namely FlexPCB (a flexible printed circuit board design) and FlexIC (flexible integrated circuits) fabricated with IZGO tech on TFTs. The processors are less than 80µm thick, including the PCB, consume less than 6mW of power, and offer outstanding flexibility plus affordability.
