XMOS introduces the world's lowest-cost and most flexible AI processor

Technology company XMOS has announced the launch of xcore.ai, a new, disruptive cross processor for the AIoT market that delivers high-performance ai, DSP, control, and IO on a single device, with prices starting at $1. This type of functionality has traditionally been deployed through powerful (and expensive) application processors or microcontrollers with add-ons to accelerate critical functions.

However, XMOS's new xcore.ai cross processor is carefully designed to provide real-time reasoning and decision making in edge applications, as well as signal processing, control and communication, enabling electronics manufacturers to economically integrate high-performance processing and intelligence into their products.

Today's smart devices often require energy-intensive, high-cost cloud connectivity. This presents challenges in terms of latency, connectivity, privacy, and energy consumption. By delivering efficient, high-performance computing in edge applications, xcore.ai provides solutions to these challenges while maintaining low cost and high design potential.

xcore.ai heralds a whole new generation of embedded platforms. It is the most versatile, scalable, cost-effective and easy to use processor on the market today. With its fast processing and neural network capabilities, xcore.ai enables data to be processed locally and acted upon on the device in nanoseconds. In the rapidly evolving AIoT ecosystem, this enables manufacturers to build smarter sensing technologies that seamlessly integrate into our lives.

But what does it all mean in reality, and can xcore.ai help make the user experience better?

Imagine the humble smoke detector - a device designed to keep us safe. It's come a long way since the first alarms were patented in 1890, but do they do enough? Yes, they warn us that we are in danger, and we instinctively know to leave the scene when we hear an alarm, but how can we really optimize smoke detectors to significantly reduce risk and support rescue and recovery?

With xcore.ai embedded, smoke detectors can use radar and imaging to identify if there are people in an affected building and, if so, determine their number and location. Using a voice interface, the detector can communicate with the person inside, while vital signs detection can identify if they are breathing. Taken together, this creates an intelligent picture of the environment that can be fed directly to emergency services, enabling informed rescue operations and improving the accuracy and speed of response.

Mark Lippett, CEO of XMOS, said: "xcore.ai offers the highest processing power in the world at $1. Combined with its flexibility, this means that electronics manufacturers, regardless of their size, can embed multimodal processing in smart devices to make life simpler, safer and more satisfying for all."