A new report has claimed that Samsung is close to finishing the development of its Neural Processing Units (NPU) or an AI chip. It will make mobile devices capable of running AI-based software much more efficiently. Another source says that Samsung has reached the level which Apple and Huawei have already achieved with their own chips.
Samsung wasn’t the first to develop a NPU. When Apple and Huawei included their NPU on the A11 Bionic and Kirin 970 SoCs, Samsung might have felt that they need to work on this as well if they want to still be in the competition. Apple’s 2017 lineup of iPhones – the iPhone X of course and iPhone 8/8 Plus make use of Apple’s NPU.
Huawei also does the same with Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. Basically, the NPU gives a smartphone the ability to analyze, process, and store data without using the cloud. It is being expected that Samsung will show off their AI capabilities as the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9+ are unveiled on February 26, on the day when MWC 2018 starts.
An anonymous source mentioned:
Although the company has been somewhat late in the AI field, it was quite fast in catching up with competitors. Still, it is too early to compare the performances of AI chips by Samsung, Apple and Huawei, because the market has just been formed. Apple claims that its NPU has reached 600 in giga operations per second, while Huawei says 4 in tera operations per second. Samsung’s is estimated to be similar or slightly higher at the moment.
Samsung has released a statement that confirms the same that Samsung is developing its own NPU and the development is being carried out by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. Samsung had earlier also confirmed the Exynos 9810, which will be powering the Galaxy S9 and S9+.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S9: Specifications, Release Date, and Rumours
At that time, we just knew that it will bring capabilities like video recording at 4K UHD at up to 120fps and also the fact that Exynos 9810 will also be using neural networks for accurately recognizing people or objects in photos. Just a few days, ago the retail box of the Galaxy S9 also leaked which gave us much information regarding the Galaxy S9, however, there was no mention of any kind of AI capabilities.
Source: Korean Herald
