Integrated with NPU in CPU, the AI of kylin 970 is not only functional or ecological

Source：Updated：2017-09-06 08:16:02

On the eve of the launch of apple's new iPhone, huawei pre-empted the launch of a new system-wide kirin 970. Huawei has called the kirin 970 "the first AI mobile computing platform" to highlight huawei's leadership in the AI field. 
 
Huawei unveiled its artificial intelligence chip, the unicorn 970, at the 2017 international consumer electronics show in Berlin, Germany, on September 2, 2017. The first huawei phone, the Mate 10, will be released in Munich, Germany on October 16. 
 
Huawei's consumer business more than CEO ChengDong told Reuters in an interview, huawei's new chip kirin 970, for the upcoming flagship model Mate 10 and other high-end phones offer a faster processing speed and lower power consumption. Yu also said he believes this will make it better than apple's iPhone 8 launch on September 12 and samsung's flagship device this year. 
 
A dedicated AI hardware processing unit is established 
 
The chip is the brain of the phone. The biggest feature of the kirin 970 chip is the establishment of a specialized AI hardware Processing Unit, the Neural Network Processing Unit (NPU), which is used to process a huge amount of AI data. 
 
The personage inside course of study introduces, the previous mobile phone chips are generally CPU (central processing unit)/GPU (graphics processor)/DSP (digital signal processing (DSP) as the core of the traditional computing architectures, but I can't support this architecture AI huge amounts of data is calculated. For this reason, unicorn 970 has a special AI hardware processing unit, which reduces the structure of CPU, GPU and other architectures, aiming to improve application efficiency and reduce energy consumption. 
 
This principle is the same as the original intention of adding DSP and other architectural designs outside CPU and GPU, to share the calculation burden of the main system. 
 
According to huawei's official introduction, the first integrated NPU of huawei's qilin 970 has adopted HiAI mobile computing architecture, and its AI performance density is much better than that of CPU and GPU. Compared with four architecture A73 (mobile processors leading ARM CPU) last year's flagship machine core, in dealing with the same AI application task, kirin 970 new heterogeneous computing architecture has about 50 times and 25 times the performance advantage of energy efficiency. This means that the kirin 970 chip can perform AI computing tasks with a higher energy efficiency. For example, at image recognition speed, it can reach about 2,000 sheets per minute, well above the industry level. 
Integrated with NPU in CPU, the AI of kylin 970 is not only functional or ecological 
Yu chengdong, CEO of huawei's consumer business, shows qilin 970 chips. 
 
Using the Cambrian authorization IP 
 
It is worth mentioning that huawei is positioning its high-end phones, in the past, to use its own hock unicorn chips. But this time the kirin 970 is not huawei's own AI intellectual property rights, but the Chinese smart chip company's Cambrian AI authorized IP. 
 
The Cambrian boasts the world's first "deep learning" processor chip. Chen tianshi and Chen yunji of the institute of computational technology of the Chinese academy of sciences are the core developers of Cambrian chips. 
 
"We work with the Cambrian team to face the end and have combined development and optimization in AI. Kirin 970 innovative design HiAI mobile computing architecture, using the maximum efficiency of heterogeneous computing architectures to exert maximum CPU/GPU/ISP/DSP/NPU performance, at the same time, the first integrated NPU dedicated hardware processing unit, the eer significantly superior to the CPU and GPU acceleration and." One huawei insider explains to thepaper.cn. 
 
According to thepaper.cn, huawei has a very early layout in terms of artificial energy research. Huawei's Noah's ark laboratory is mainly engaged in the research of artificial intelligence algorithms, the management of AI technology cooperation, the recognition of AI's main application scenarios and requirements management. Huawei also announced a strategic partnership with the university of California, Berkeley, for the study of artificial intelligence. 
 
A chipmaker told thepaper.cn that there could be two reasons for using the Cambrian IP authorization. One is that huawei wants to build an open ecosystem with its own chips, which are not very good for AI developers. Another possibility is that the integration of AI technology into mobile chips is still quite complex, and huawei's own AI technology may be too late. 
 
A system-wide cell phone chip mainly includes CPU/GPU/DSP/ISP, as well as many components such as baseband chip. The unicorn 970 still has eight core cpus, and nothing has changed compared to the previous unicorn 960. On the GPU, kirin 970 is using the ARM Mali - released in May this year just G72 architecture, performance is Mali - G71 improved, moreover, in the core number, kirin 970 GPU from kirin 960 8 to 12 nuclei. 
 
On the baseband chip, huawei has taken advantage of itself as a communication equipment manufacturer. Unicorn 970 directly supports LTE (4G) cat.18 (network speed rating), and the top download speed can reach 1.2 Gbps, which should be the leading industry. 
 
Although there are no particularly big surprises in CPU and GPU, the overall performance can also be improved due to the 10-nanometer process of kirin 970. Mr Yu said the kirin 970 energy consumption was 20 per cent higher. 
 
Huawei's ai strategy 
 
Not just smart chips, yu also fully explained the ai strategy for huawei's consumer business in a keynote address on September 2. 
 
Yu said: "the future of intelligent terminal to constantly development, the corresponding artificial intelligence system must be both to give full play to end their own ability and value, also want to combine big data and cloud technology brings the huge amounts of information, services, and super computing power, the realization of artificial intelligence terminal in the future must be through the cloud synergy, which is the focus of our current strategic layout." 
 
Yu chengdong proposed in his speech that cloud side intelligence has been widely used for many years, but the experience of cloud side intelligence is not complete. In terms of user experience, there are not enough real-time, instant, stability and privacy issues, while the side intelligence can realize the complementary advantages of cloud intelligence. End side intelligent strong awareness is the precondition of mobile phone become person's busy and assistant, with a large number of real-time, scene, personalized data, under the strong chip processing ability to support sustained, terminal can have higher cognitive ability, to provide users with personalized, direct service and at the same time boost the privacy data security of the local processing. 
 
From the perspective of yu chengdong, after the release of kirin 970, huawei's terminal marketing should take "AI" as a prominent selling point and build an ecology around AI. 
 
In the era of artificial intelligence, the ideal situation is that the intelligent terminal will become the assistant of the person who truly realizes "know you", "understand you" and "help you". This requires the continuous evolution of artificial intelligence technology, which is not only the passive response to users' needs, but also the ability to actively perceive the user's state and environment, and provide a new interactive way of accurate service.