Why is state media promoting AI chips made by a Shanghai-based AI unicorn?

Publication: Shanghai Observer / Date: 2019-05-10 / Time: 11:09 / Reporter: Li Hua State media unprecedentedly aired a piece of news regarding an AI unicorn’s impending product launch on CCTV's signature evening newscast, Xinwen Lianbo, that aired at 19:00 on May 8. This Shanghai-based company was set to introduce a cloud-based visual analysis AI chip. The first of its kind, the above-mentioned chip is the first to have ever been independently designed and manufactured by Chinese semiconductor companies.

On the morning of May 9, the cloud-based AI chip QuestCore made an impressive debut. The chip is independently developed by YITU Technology, and its performance parallels the fully self-driving computer chip released by Tesla last month. During the real-life demonstration on the product launch event, Dr. Lu Wei, YITU's chief innovation officer, held a YITU Atomic Server that was the size of a 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro notebook, which successfully commanded 200 cameras to complete a real-time intelligent video analysis task. This received a resounding response.

This month marks the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the Science and Technology Innovation Center in Shanghai. Last December, Li Qiang, Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Secretary, pointed out that the focus of the city’s technological development should be dedicated to the semiconductor industry. At this important juncture, Shanghai's AI unicorn YITU managed to respond to this undertaking with solid innovation.

The AI chip QuestCore is a joint development by YITU Technology and an AI chip startup named ThinkForce. The chip can be used for real-time intelligent analysis tasks such as facial recognition, video structured analysis and pedestrian re-identification. This is the world's smartest and most cost-effective visual analysis chip. In the actual cloud application scenario, QuestCore can provide visual reasoning performance of up to 15 Tera Operations Per Second (a performance metric). Its maximum power consumption stands at merely 20 watts, lower than a regular light bulb. Under the same power consumption, the visual reasoning performance of QuestCore is 2-5 times better than other similar products in the current market.

Shanghai is a region that boasts one of the most complete integrated circuit industry chains, the highest industrial concentration, and the strongest comprehensive technical capability. Last year, its sales reached 145 billion yuan, representing a 22.9% year-on-year increase. For more than half a century, relying on the miraculous Moore's Law, mankind has succeeded in fitting more computing power into less space. However, Moore's Law is coming to an end. The number of transistors per unit area will eventually reach its physical limit. Meanwhile, the performance of intelligent algorithms is improving by tens of thousands of times. Taking the YITU facial recognition algorithm as an example, the accuracy of the algorithm has increased by 1 million times over the past 4 years.

Dr. Zhu Long, co-founder and CEO of YITU, shared his view on AI chips.

During his speech, Zhu mentioned that YITU expects the era of Moore's Law will come to an end and that AI technology will open up a new era - an algorithms-equal-chips era. "Algorithms equal chips. This is the heart of the matter. “In order to make semiconductor products in the most cost-effective way, we have to first ask the right questions, find the right scenarios and use the required algorithms, before customizing a chip."

YITU Atomic Server is designed for QuestCore and it can unleash extraordinary computing power despite its size. It boasts computing power equivalent to eight Nvidia P4 servers, while coming in at only half the size and consuming 20% of the energy required otherwise. For single-channel video analysis, when looking at a comparison between a YITU Atomic Server (4 core QuestCore chips with no further configurations) and eight Nvidia T4 servers (dual core Intel x86 CPU), it can be concluded that YIDA’s only consumes 20% of the energy required otherwise by the latter; it consumes 10% of the energy required for a NVIDIA P4 server (dual core Intel x86 CPU).

The live demonstration proves that to run an entire main street or a small campus might only require a small server that can be easily held in one hand. This intelligent terminal device can build a foundation for large scale AI application in smart cities, smart transportation, intelligent security, intelligent retail and so on.

Data centers should be “buildable, cost-effective, and precisely calibrated” for customers. By using the video analysis system built by QuestCore, we can cut the otherwise required 16 server cabinets to one, reducing the overall construction cost by 50%, and the operation and maintenance cost by 80%. Moreover, YITU Atomic Server can upgrade the system directly in the cloud, which helps eliminate the need to purchase new cameras or update existing ones. One need not purchase new devices or upgrade existing ones, including cameras, sensors and other terminal devices on a large scale, which is beneficial to better leverage the existing infrastructure.

With the release of cloud-based AI chips alongside a series of other products, YITU exhibited its technological muscle. YITU demonstrated its global technological leadership in visual and voice recognition, natural language processing, and intelligent decision-making. The company seeks to equip machines with the ability to see, hear and understand, while improving the accuracy of algorithms and extending their scope of usage.

From a business perspective, the release of chips and other products will facilitate YITU’s vertical integration into the industry’s value chain. Through world-class algorithms, chips, servers and management software, they can build chips and hardware with better performance, and at lower cost. With algorithms empowering chips, AI can be applied to more scenarios and applications. The debut of YITU QuestCore serves as proof that China is fully capable of producing top notch AI chips. In the uncharted waters of artificial intelligence, Chinese AI startups are standing at the same starting point as world leaders in the field, and are likely to become giants in the future.

[To read the story, visit https://www.jiemian.com/article/3114083.html]