Kneron, a San Diego-based startup, recently launched its latest custom chip, the Kneron KL 720, an AI system-on-a-chip(SoC) and raised 40 million dollars in a Series A funding round. The company received funds from Alibaba Sequoia, Horizon Ventures, SparkLabs Taipei, Qualcomm, and a few undisclosed backers.
Kneron is a big name in microelectronics, and the company claims its latest launch KL720 AI Soc, as very advanced from other competitors in the market. Some specifications of the KL 720AI SoC are:
- It is available in 9mm X 9mm and 11mm X 11mm configurations.
- According to the company, it performs 0.9 Total operations per second (TOPS) per Watt, giving it the highest performance to power ratio in the market.
- It can process 4K images, unlike its previous version.
- It supports HD videos at a 1080 P resolution.
- It also has gesture control for gaming, shopping kiosks, etc.
- It has the power to drive natural language processing (NLP) for translators and AI assistants.
- It has a 700MHz neural processing unit(NPU), a 400MHz Arm-Cortex control system, and 128MB of built-in LPDD4 RAM that provides its tremendous power and efficiency.
- Its NPU supports 3D image sensing.
- It offers highly secure and reliable facial recognition.
It claims to be twice as efficient in terms of power as Intel’s Movidius and four times more than Google’s Coral Edge TPU at a more affordable cost.
According to Kneron, their KL 720AI SoC offers the ideal balance of performance, power-saving, and budget. It is perfect for IP cams, headsets, smart TVs, etc.
The company also offers KNEO, a networking solution for the devices powered by its chips. It lets developers create personal networks without routing data to the cloud.
For now, the company’s focus is on the core hardware, an area where there is a tough competition from many other startups.
Source:https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/27/kneron-launches-its-new-ai-chip-to-challenge-google-and-others/
Consultant Intern: Currently in her third year of B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Goa. She is an ML enthusiast and has a keen interest in Data Science. She is a very good learner and tries to be well versed with the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence.
