The Huawei Kirin 970 opened the era of AI in smartphones with its integrated NPU neural network unit, but this NPU was not developed by Huawei itself; it came from the AI unicorn Cambrian Technology’s A1 processor IP.
This year, Cambrian Technology released the latest AI 1M processor IP, while Huawei introduced the Kirin 980, which integrates a dual-core NPU for the first time. Both are manufactured using a 7nm process, leading many to speculate that the Kirin 980 still adopts Cambrian Technology’s IP, although neither party has disclosed relevant information.
At the HUAWEI CONNECT 2018 conference on October 10, Huawei publicly unveiled its AI strategy for the first time and launched a full-stack, full-scenario AI solution along with two powerful AI chips, Ascend 910 and Ascend 310, the former exceeding Google and NVIDIA in certain aspects.
Could it be that the Kirin 980’s NPU is developed by Huawei?
Recently, Cambrian Technology’s official website released a news article titled “Cambrian 1H Empowers Huawei Kirin 980 with Stronger Edge AI Computing Power“, which officially confirmed for the first time that the dual-core NPU of Huawei Kirin 980 comes from Cambrian Technology’s 1H processor IP.
The article states: “Following the Cambrian 1A smart terminal processor that helped Kirin 970 become the world’s first AI smartphone chip, the Cambrian 1H dual-core processor continues to provide Kirin 980 with more powerful, superior, and stable mobile AI computing power. On October 26, 2018, Huawei officially launched the Huawei Mate 20 series smartphones equipped with the Kirin 980 for domestic users, once again refreshing the intelligence level of mobile terminals, while Cambrian 1H smart processors also reached millions of consumers. The Cambrian 1H is Cambrian’s second-generation high-performance, low-power smart terminal processor IP product, widely applicable in fields such as computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, and smart IoT, suitable for various low-power smart terminal chips.”
According to reports, the Cambrian 1H smart processor is Cambrian’s second-generation high-performance, low-power smart terminal processor IP product, which completed development in spring 2017 and began commercial use for key customers, publicly released in November 2017.
It adopts a customized low-power processor architecture, significantly improving the processing speed and energy efficiency of deep learning compared to traditional processors and graphics processors, and is widely applicable in fields such as computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, and smart IoT, suitable for various low-power smart terminal chips.
Cambrian stated, “On the road ahead, Cambrian and the Huawei Kirin team will continue to work hand in hand, leveraging their AI chip technology advantages to promote the development of the smartphone industry, jointly advancing towards the goal of making AI accessible to all as soon as possible.”
It seems that future Kirin processors will continue to adopt Cambrian AI IP.
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