Intel Nervana: New ASIC designed for artificial intelligence applications
Intel has unveiled the new Intel Nervana Neural Network Processors to speed up AI calculations. Also announced the next generation of Intel Movidius Myriad visual processing units for machine vision and edge inference.
Intel expands its portfolio of solutions dedicated to artificial intelligence with the introduction of the new Intel Nervana Neural Network Processors (NPP).
These are two new ASIC intended for those working in the cloud and data center: NNP-T1000 will accelerate the training operations of deep learning algorithms, while NNP-I1000 is designed for calculations relating to inference.
They are easily scalable and very energy-efficient devices, which can be integrated both within small clusters and as support for supercomputers for POD (Performance Optimized Datacenter), developed for AI applications of customers such as the Chinese search engine Baidu and Facebook.
The social giant is satisfied with the solution: ” We are excited to work with Intel to implement faster and more efficient inference calculations with the Intel Nervana neural network processor (NNP-I) and expand support for our compiler for it. State-of-the-art deep learning, Glow, ” said Misha Smelyanskiy, Facebook director of AI System Co-Design.
The new Intel Movidius Myriad will be up to 10 times faster
During the first half of 2020, Intel will launch the new generation of Intel Movidius Myriad visual processing units (VPU), designed for AI applications in the edge. They are processors dedicated to multimedia, artificial vision and edge inference applications: in this area, they give their best, resulting up to 10 times faster than the previous generation. Intel also claims up to six times more energy efficiency than its competitors.
” With this new phase of artificial intelligence, we are reaching a turning point in terms of computational hardware and memory ” – said Naveen Rao, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Intel Artificial Intelligence Products Group – ” To continue with the incredible Advances in artificial intelligence require specially developed hardware products, such as Intel Nervana NNP neural network processors and Intel Movidius Myriad VPU visual processing units. The use of more advanced forms of artificial intelligence at the system level it will make it possible to move from transforming data into information to transforming information into knowledge “.
