What we learned from CES 2018: Self-driving cars and AI chips are the rage!

This new year, multiple tech firms such as LG, Sony, Samsung have launched brand new OLED screen televisions, smart laptops, speakers, and so on with next-gen technologies for their consumers. To know about these in detail, you can visit the link here. In this article, we explore how tech giants such as Nvidia, Intel, and AMD have leveraged AI and ML to launch next-gen products. Let’s take a brief look at each one’s contribution at the CES 2018.

Nvidia Highlights at CES 2018

Nvidia unveiled their Xavier SoC(System on a Chip) autonomous machine intelligence processors at CES this year. The Xavier has over 9 billion transistors with a custom 8-core CPU, a 512-core Volta GPU, an 8K HDR video processor, a deep-learning accelerator and new computer-vision accelerators. With all these huge figures, Xavier can crunch more sensor and vehicle data for the AI systems that will power self-driving vehicles. The other striking features of this SoC are, it can perform 30 trillion operations per second using only 30 watts of power, and is 15 times more efficient than the previous architecture.

Nvidia also announced three new variants of its DRIVE AI platform. These new variants are based around Xavier SoCs. The three variants include:

• Drive AR focuses on getting Augmented Reality into vehicles, which can enhance and transform the driving experience. It offers developers with an SDK, which will further enable them to build experiences that leverage computer vision, graphics and artificial intelligence capabilities to do things like overlay information about road conditions, points of interest and other real-world locations using interactive in-car displays.
• Drive IX would formulate an easy way to build and deploy in-car AI assistants. These assistants will be capable of incorporating both interior and exterior sensor data to interact not only with drivers but also with passengers on the road.
• The third DRIVE AI-based platform is a revision of its existing autonomous taxi brain, Pegasus. This new version improves on the previously revealed preproduction edition by compiling two Xavier SoCs with two Nvidia GPUs into a package that’s roughly the size of a license plate – down from the trunk-filling physical footprint of the original.

Nvidia also announced that it is partnering with two Chinese companies Baidu and automaker ZF, for bringing autonomous driving to roads. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang stated that Nvidia’s Drive Xavier auto compute platform would be used for Baidu’s Apollo Project. The Apollo project offers an open platform for self-driving cars in partnership with a wide variety of automakers, suppliers and tech companies.

Huang also revealed that Nvidia will be supplying its self-driving computer hardware to Aurora, a Google start-up. Aurora would build self-driving systems for both Volkswagen and Hyundai, the startup revealed last week.

Also, Uber has chosen Nvidia as one of its key technology partners in its fleet of self-driving, specifically to provide the AI computing aspects of its autonomous software. Uber has used Nvidia’s GPUs in both its self-driving ride-hailing test fleet and in its self-driving transport trucks, which are also developed by its Advanced Technologies Group.

Intel Highlights at CES 2018

Intel in collaboration with AMD has unveiled new processors with the help of AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M graphics. These new core processors are Intel’s first CPU with discrete graphics included in a single package. This leads to an incredibly thin and lightweight laptops and desktops that are able to provide an impressive gaming performance with an added 4K media streaming. As per Intel, these chips would be the first example of power-sharing across CPU and GPU, the first consumer mobile chips to use HBM2 (the second-generation high bandwidth memory, a faster type of graphics memory), and also the first consumer solution to use Intel EMIB(Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge). To know more about this in detail please visit the link given here.

At CES 2018, Intel unveiled its new mini-PC NUC system, formerly codenamed Hades Canyon. This system aims at premium virtual reality (VR) applications. The system comes in two versions, the NUC8i7HVK and the NUC8i7HNK.

The NUC8i7HVK:

• comes with Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics
• can operate from 1,063MHz to 1,190MHz
• It has an 8th-gen quad-core 100W Intel Core i7-8809G 3.1GHz with 4.2GHz turbo mode, and is "unlocked and VR-capable".

The NUC8i7HNK:

• comes with Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics with an operating range of 931MHz-1,011MHz.
• It also has a 65W quad-core 8th-gen Intel Core i7-8705G 3.1GHz CPU with 4.1GHz turbo mode.

To know more about this news in detail, visit the link here.

AMD Highlights at CES 2018

AMD announced its brand new Ryzen 3 2300U APU chips specifically designed for affordable laptops and Chromebooks.

The Ryzen 3 2300U is a full-featured chip featuring 4 cores and 4 threads clocked at a base 2.0GHz and boost 3.4GHz. Its APU comes with full-on Radeon RX Vega graphics powered by six compute units.

In addition to the dual-core, Ryzen 3 2200U runs with 4 threads at a standard 2.5GHz frequency that boosts up to 3.4GHz. It also features Radeon RX Vega graphics similar to other APUs in the family but requires only three compute units to power it.

AMD announced a new set of Ryzen chips for desktops i.e desktop Ryzen APUs in order to replace its ongoing Athlon chips. AMD’s new APUs are based on the Raven Ridge Architecture, and is a combination of an updated version of Ryzen processor with “discrete-class” Radeon RX Vega graphics. AMD has introduced two chips:

• Ryzen 5 2400G APU includes 4 cores and 8 threads clocked at a base 3.6Ghz and is boosted with 3.9GHz. On top of the processor, this new chip features Radeon RX Graphics with 11 compute units for playable gaming experiences at 1080p and high-quality settings.
•  Ryzen 3 2200G is rated for 3.5GHz base and 3.7GHz boost clock speeds. This entry-level APU also comes outfitted with 4 cores, but only 4 threads, as well as just 8, compute units attached to its Radeon RX Vega GPU.

AMD also spoke about its new Ryzen 2 which would hit the market around April this year, which would have:

• A new 12nm Zen architecture, which out-smalls the 14nm transistors of Intel Coffee Lake.
• This upcoming chip brings higher clock speeds and Precision Boost 2 technology for greater performance and efficiency. To know more about this news in detail, click on the link here.

Apart from well-known names such as Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, Ceva, the leading licensor of Signal processing platforms and AI processors, unveiled NeuPro.

NeuPro is a powerful and specialized Artificial Intelligence (AI) processor family for deep learning inference at the edge. It is designed for edge device vendors who can quickly take advantage of the significant possibilities that deep neural network technologies offer. NeuPro extends the use of AI beyond machine vision to new edge-based applications including natural language processing, real-time translation, authentication, workflow management, and many other learning-based applications.

With 4 more days to go, many such advancements are expected to be announced at the CES 2018. Watch this space in the coming days for more.