ARM reveals chips designed for AI devices

A new breed of computer chips is being created to allow computer systems to process the vast amounts of data required as machine learning is fueling the current artificial intelligence boom.

UK chip designer ARM has revealed its latest line of CPUs and GPUs specifically designed for these AI devices. Called Cortex-A75, Cortex-A55, and Mali-G72, the processors use the firm’s DynamIQ technology.

It’s claimed the A75 allows for a “massive single-thread compute uplift,” Nandan Nayampally, the firm’s Vice President and General Manager for compute products said, while the A55 is designed for a greater processing efficiency, and the G72 GPU was created for VR, gaming, and machine learning processes.

DynamIQ technology is claimed to create ‘energy-efficient CPUs’ and increases what the processors are capable of. In a statement, Nayampally said the tech will “deliver 50x AI performance increases over the next three to five years”.

ARM said it expects to help ship 100 billion chips in the next five years and says all the new chips were designed to “power the most advanced compute.”

“We need to enable faster, more efficient and secure distributed intelligence between computing at the edge of the network and into the cloud,” it said.

ARM, based in the UK, was purchased by Softbank for £24bn in August 2016. However, reports have since claimed Softbank may sell-off some of its stake in the acquisition.

The launch of its new chipset follows Google’s latest machine learning processors, unveiled earlier this month at its developer conference. Google’s second-generation Tensor Processing Units (TPU) will be released later this year and have been designed to handle machine learning training as well as processing. They’re said to be capbale of delivering 180 teraflops of performance.

To compete with Google’s TPU’s, designed to work with the search giant’s TensorFlow frameworks, rival firm NVIDIA is building its own TPU competitor. NVIDIA’s Pascal systems have similarly been created for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Elsewhere, Intel has announced its latest Core X chips for desktop processors. While not designed specifically for AI and machine learning, the new line will be used within desktop computers and are designed to improve multitasking processes.