Arm Targets Edge AI with NPU and IoT Reference Design
Apr 10, 2024Technology company Arm has released a new neural processing unit (NPU) which the company is promoting as delivering four-times the performance of predecessor products. The new Arm Ethos-U85 is intended for Edge AI applications such as factory automation and commercial or smart home cameras.
The company is also releasing its IoT Reference Design Platform, Corstone-320, to enable embedded IP with virtual hardware to accelerate deployment of IoT-based voice, audio and vision systems.
The Arm Ethos-U85 for Edge AI, is the company’s most efficient Ethos NPU to date, the company reported, with 20 percent higher power efficiency compared to its predecessor.
The Arm Corstone-320 IoT Reference Design Platform is designed to help developers create products and solutions leveraging edge AI applications such as real-time image classification and object recognition or enabling voice assistants with natural language translation on smart speakers.
The Arm-Corstone platform includes software, tools and support, including Arm Virtual Hardware. This combination of hardware and software will accelerate product development, the company reported, by enabling software development to start even if silicon is not yet available, rapidly improving time to market for increasingly complex edge AI devices.
Ambiq Releases new Energy Efficient SoC for IoT
Semiconductor company Ambiq has developed a new Software on a Chip (SoC) known as the Apollo510, the first member of the Apollo5 SoC family to enable AI in IoT sensors.
The Apollo510 MCU leverages the Arm Cortex-M55 CPU with processing speeds up to 250 MHz. The Apollo510 can achieve up to 10-times better latency while reducing energy consumption at twice the amount, compared to Ambiq’s previous power efficiency leader, the Apollo4.
The product’s combination of performance and efficiency, Ambiq said, allows companies to deploy sophisticated speech, vision, health and industrial AI models on battery-powered IoT sensor devices everywhere.
Apollo510 is capable of running most endpoint AI calculations, including low-power sensor monitoring, always-on voice commands and telco-quality audio enhancement. That’s possible due to its 30-times, energy improvement over other products.
Manufacturers of IoT devices—such as next-gen wearables, digital health devices, virtual reality (VR) glasses, factory automation, and remote monitoring devices—can add more capabilities to their devices through the Apollo510's SPOT-optimized design at less power.
The Apollo510 MCU is currently sampling with customers, with general availability in the fourth quarter his year.
RFID Technology Company Xerafy Aims for Reusable Packaging
Xerafy, a technology company with RFID and IoT products, has partnered with sustainable food service solutions firm Reusables. The two companies intend to offer reusable packaging, such as cups, with RFID technology to enable tracking of their use and reuse.
The companies are targeting the use of single-use plastic waste in the foodservice sector. By leveraging Reusables' foodservice sector experience and Xerafy’s RFID technology, the companies intend to help their customers meet Section 204 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), to raise food safety standards and traceability within the industry.
Xerafy is an RFID technology company specializing in industrial solutions. It also focuses on innovations that provide efficient and sustainable solutions. Reusables is a Vancouver tech firm that offers packaging for food and beverages aimed at reuse. Its solutions are in use at sites such as university cafes.
