MediaTek unveiled an “AI IoT platform i700” SoC for edge AI with 2x 2.2GHz Cortex-A75 cores and 6x 2.0GHz -A55 cores plus a PowerVR GM9446, a 970MHz ISP, and a MediaTek APU 2.0 for AI acceleration.

MediaTek recently announced a powerful octa-core Arm that is intended not for smartphones but for edge AI systems. The AI IoT platform i700 is designed for applications including facial recognition in retail payment authentication, access control for smart buildings, or as a visual-sensor platform for autonomous vehicles in factories and warehousing. Other possibilities are said to include obstacle detection systems in automated forklifts and 3D human pose detection for augmented reality fitness coaching applications.

MediaTek’s AI IoT platform i700 launch event
(Source: thegioididong)
(click image to enlarge)

The AI IoT platform i700 is equipped with 2x 2.2GHz Cortex-A75 cores and 6x 2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The SoC supports MediaTek’s CorePilot technology, “ensuring that the eight cores can optimally configure computing resources in the most efficient manner,” says Taiwan-based MediaTek.

The SoC, which was reported on by CNXSoft, based on a thegioididong (translated) post that cited a GizmoChina story, is further equipped with an Imagination PowerVR GM9446 GPU and a tri-core, 970MHz IMG 9XM-HP8 ISP. There’s also a dual-core MediaTek APU 2.0, which is claimed to offer five times faster AI computations compared to the octa-core (4x -A73, 4x -A53) MediaTek i500 (MT8385).

The APU provides AI processing, acceleration, and face detection engines and works with MediaTek’s NeuroPilot SDK, which supports Linux or Android. The SDK is compatible with Google’s Android Neural Networks API and supports common industry frameworks like TensorFlow, TF Lite, Caffe, and Caffe2.

The AI IoT platform i700 can drive up to a single 32-megapixel camera or a 24MP+16MP dual-camera setup. MediaTek touts the SoC’s support for “accurate, zero-latency image recognition on 30fps videos shot on a 32MP camera, as well as high speed recognition on high resolution 120fps slow motion videos. The ISP supports 14-bit RAW and 10-bit YUV processing.

The SoC supports up to 8GB OF 1866MHz LPDDR4x RAM. Wireless support includes dual-band 802.11ac with Bluetooth 5.0 LE and up to Cat.12 LTE.

 
Further information

The AI IoT platform i700 will be available globally in 2020. More information may be found in MediaTek’s announcement and product page.