Intel has quietly launched a mysterious new AI CPU that promises to bring deep learning inference and computing to the edge β but you won’t be able to plug them into a motherboard anytime soon
Intel has launched a new line of AI processors for the edge, promising industrial-class deep learning inference. The new ‘Amston Lake’ Atom x7000RE chips offer up to double the number of cores and twice the higher graphics base frequency than the previous x6000RE series, all neatly packed into a 6Wβ12W BGA package.
The x7000RE series offers more performance in a smaller footprint. With up to eight E-cores, it supports LPDDR5/DDR5/DDR4 memory and up to nine PCIe 3.0 lanes, providing robust multitasking capabilities.
Intel says its new processors are designed to withstand challenging environments, withstand extreme temperature fluctuations, shock and vibration, and to work in hard-to-reach locations. They offer 2x SATA Gen 3.2 ports, up to 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB Type-C port, 2.5GbE Ethernet connection, along with Intel Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G platform capabilities.
Embedded, industrial and communications
The x7000RE series consists of four SKUs, all suitable for embedded, industrial and communications use under extended temperature conditions. The x7211RE and x7213RE have 2 cores and relatively lower base frequencies, while the x7433RE has 4 cores and the x7835RE has 8 cores with higher base frequencies.
All four SKUs support a GPU execution unit count of 16 or 32, and Intel’s Time Coulated Computing and Time-Sensitive Networking GbE features. The x7000RE offers integrated Intel UHD Graphics, Intel DL Boost, Intel AVX2 with INT8 support and OpenVINO toolkit support.
Intel says the chips will enable customers to easily deploy deep learning inference at the industrial edge and in smart cities, and βenhance computer vision solutions with built-in AI capabilities and ecosystem-enabled camera modulesβ and βpower and capture cost-efficient performance to enable latency-bound workloads in robotics and automation.β