Episode 70!!! NPUs!!!!!!!!

The Circuit · 2 Jun 2024 · 51m · Episode 71

What this episode covers

Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg host Austin Lyons and Paul Karazuba to discuss the architecture, market, and future of Neural Processing Units (NPUs). The group debunks the metric 'TOPS per watt' as meaningless, arguing that real-world performance depends on specific network workloads and latency. They explore how chipmakers like Qualcomm, Intel, and Apple are designing NPUs, often by licensing IP or evolving DSPs, and predict that NPUs will become ubiquitous in devices from smartphones to microcontrollers within three to four years.

Mentioned

Companies
Expedera, Qualcomm, Intel, Apple, AMD, Movidius, Wavidea, NVIDIA
Products
Qualcomm Hexagon, Trainium, Inferentia, TPU, Copilot Plus PC, Snapdragon

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