Huawei has unveiled their latest Kirin 970 SoC for premium smartphone at IFA 2017. The processor features an 8-core CPU, and a new 12-core GPU, but what makes this new processor stands apart it a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to accelerate tasks used for artificial intelligence, with the company claiming the NPU delivers 25 times the performance with 50x greater efficiency compared to a quad core Cortex A73 processor for AI computing tasks. In practical terms, Kirin 970 could process 2,000 images per minute in an unnamed benchmark image recognition test.
The press release also mentions the processor will pack 5.5 billion transistors packed into 1 cm² and be manufactured using a 10nm “advanced processor”. But they did not go into much further details about the specs, so instead, I used info from Anandtech and the slide above to derive Kirin 970 technical specifications:
- CPU – 4x ARM Cortex A73 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x ARM Cortex A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz
- GPU – 12-core Mali G72MP12 GPU
- NPU – Kirin NPU delivering up to 1.92TFLOPS (FP16)
- DSP – Image DSP with 512-bit SIMD
- Sensor Hub – i7 Sensor Processor
- Memory I/F – LPDDR4X @ 1866MHz
- Storage I/F – UFS 2.1
- Video – 4K video decoding with HDR @ 60 fps, 4K video encoding @ 30 fps
- Audio – 32-bit codec, 384 Kbps
- Camera – Dual camera ISP with face & motion detection
- Cellular Connectivity – Worldmode LTE Cat 18 with up to 1.2 Gbps download; Dual LTE SIM card support
- Security – InSE and TEE security engines
- Manufacturing Process – 10nm
Huawei also uploaded a promo video making clear in no-uncertain terms that the new processor will transform your phone into a digital version of the overly attached girlfriend who “is always here in real-time”, “only for you”, “ready to learn even more” (about you)…
Huawei Mate 10 will be the first smartphone based on Kirin 970 processor, and will launch on October 16th in Munich, Germany.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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