Processors

Synopsys Broadens Neural Network Engine IP Core Family

Last June, when Synopsys unveiled its latest-generation DesignWare EV6x vision processor core, the company also introduced an 880-MAC, 12-bit convolutional neural network (CNN) companion processor, the CNN880. Although the CNN880 is optional for Synopsys customers using the EV6x, it's been a key factor (often the lead factor, in fact) in greater than 90% of EV6x customer engagements, according to Product Marketing Manager Gordon Cooper. And although a year ago, an 880-MAC architecture was at Read more...

Xilinx's reVISION Stack Tackles Computer Vision, Machine Learning Applications

Xilinx, like many companies, sees a significant opportunity in burgeoning deep neural network applications, as well as those that leverage computer vision...often times, both at the same time. Last fall, targeting acceleration of cloud-based deep neural network inference (when a neural network analyzes new data it’s presented with, based on its previous training), the company unveiled its Reconfigurable Acceleration Stack, an application-tailored expansion of its original SDAccel development Read more...

Microsoft’s Deep Learning Toolkit Advances

Microsoft's Cognitive Toolkit (formerly CNTK) is a relatively recent entrant to the open-source deep learning framework market. And, as the company's Principal Researcher Cha Zhang acknowledged in a recent briefing, it has a ways to go before it can catch up with the population of developers enjoyed by well-known alternatives such as Caffe and Google's TensorFlow. Last year's transition from Microsoft's own CodePlex open source hosting site to the more widely known GitHub repository, along with Read more...

Cadence Doubles Down on Deep Learning

At last year's Embedded Vision Summit, Cadence unveiled the Tensilica Vision P6 DSP, which augmented the imaging and vision processing capabilities of its predecessors with the ability to efficiently execute deep neural network (DNN) inference functions. Cadence returned to the Summit this year with a new IP offering, the Vision C5 DSP core, focused exclusively on deep neural networks. Vision C5 is intended for use alongside another core, such as the Vision P6, which will handle image signal Read more...

Imagination Technologies' Furian Graphics Processor Targets Computer Vision and Other GPU Compute Tasks

Imagination Technologies' new PowerVR Furian graphics microarchitecture is the company's most significant advancement since 2011's Rogue, which has formed the microarchitecture foundation of multiple subsequent product families (Figure 1). While still based on the tile-based deferred rendering (TBDR) approach that dates back to the mid-1990s, Furian is tailored for not only the increasingly demanding graphics performance requirements of modern SoCs and systems based on them but also their Read more...

Case Study: Using Deep Learning Techniques for Commercial Product Success

Here at BDTI, we’re working to apply deep learning techniques to a wide range of applications. Deep learning can be extremely effective—if there’s the right combination of data and processing power. The challenge to success lies in understanding how much data is sufficient and how to process it efficiently. This is where BDTI’s expertise in algorithms and architectures delivers value to our customers. Recently, BDTI was engaged to create a convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify items Read more...

CEVA's XC12 DSP Core Targets Multi-Gbit Cellular, Wi-Fi Opportunities

At last month's MWC (Mobile World Congress), CEVA unveiled the XC12, its latest DSP core for communication infrastructure applications. A significant feature set upgrade to the XC4500 DSP core precursor, the XC12 is tailored for the bandwidth, latency and user count demands of next-generation "5G" cellular-supportive infrastructure equipment, ranging from remote digital front-end radio heads through multi-mode baseband processing in various-sized base stations, and all the way to wireless Read more...

NVIDIA's Jetson TX2: Embedded Designs Gain a Deep Learning Upgrade

Jetson TX2 is NVIDIA's latest board-level product targeted at computer vision, deep learning, and other embedded AI tasks, particularly focused on "at the edge" inference (when a neural network analyzes new data it’s presented with, based on its previous training) (Figure 1). It acts as an upgrade to both the Tegra K1 SoC-based Jetson TK1, covered in InsideDSP in the spring of 2014, and the successor Tegra X1-based Jetson TX1, which BDTI evaluated for deep learning and other computer vision Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Will Deep Learning Displace All Other Computer Vision Techniques?

It's remarkable to see the range of applications in which deep neural networks are proving effective – often, significantly more effective than previously known techniques. From speech recognition to ranking web search results to object recognition, each day brings a new product or published paper with a new challenge tamed by deep learning. Computer vision, of course, is a field with significant deep learning activity. Deep learning is particularly appealing for visual perception because Read more...

Case Study: Hands-On Experience Delivers Insights Into Technologies and Trends for Deep Learning

One of the most interesting resources for those interested in the rapidly growing field of deep learning is the "Cognitive Computing Startup List," compiled by Chris Rowan of Cognite Ventures. As of February 21, Chris had identified 275 companies that are, in his words, "the most focused, the most active and the most innovative…." These were culled from various lists of companies that tout artificial intelligence and deep learning. Such companies number in the thousands—the sheer number is a Read more...