Artificial intelligence (AI) on the edge is a critical factor to widespread AI adoption and ARM is tackling the problem head-on with a pair of new chips, according to The Verge.
Edge AI is the ability to run AI locally, on-device, rather than offloading to a remote server. The obvious benefits are increased speed, since there’s no latency back and forth between the remote server, as well as increased privacy.
According to The Verge, ARM is working on “the Arm Cortex-M55 and the Ethos-U55, a neural processing unit meant to pair with the Cortex-M55 for more demanding use cases.” The Cortex-M55 provides up to 15 times better machine learning performance and up to 5 times better digital signal processing performance than previous Cortex-M processors.
Unlike Intel or AMD, ARM doesn’t manufacture its own processors. Instead, it designs them and then licenses those designs to other companies, such as Apple, who go on to manufacture and use them. With these new chips, however, ARM isn’t targeting phones and tablets. The goal is to use the chips to “develop new Internet of Things devices, bringing AI processing to more devices that otherwise wouldn’t have those capabilities.”
If the Cortex-M55 lives up to the hype, it should help usher in a whole new generation of AI-enabled devices and services.