Qualcomm Cloud Edge AI Development Kit commercially available in 1st half of 2021
This blog post was originally published at Qualcomm’s website. It is reprinted here with the permission of Qualcomm.
Since the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 inference accelerator was announced a year ago, our AI team has been very busy. Today marks an important milestone, as the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 inference accelerator is sampling with multiple customers and is poised to reshape the future of the datacenter, 5G edge appliances, and 5G infrastructure. In addition, we also announced the availability of the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 Edge AI Development Kit which is a 5G edge box that is sampling early next month.
Making the development kit and inference accelerator accessible to customers means that they can reap the AI performance benefits of these products (up to 400 TOPS) while being on the cutting-edge of power efficiency. These products sip very little power yet deliver a massive boost in performance for hyperscalar companies that are looking to advance their AI applications. The dev kit can be leveraged to create 5G edge boxes that will change the retail and manufacturing landscape, among other industries. Imagine a giant retailer that can restock aisles upon aisles of products by using AI to signal that a shelf is empty. Consider manufacturing, where safety is a key concern. A Qualcomm Cloud AI 100-equipped edge box can identify numerous people and objects simultaneously and ensure that protective equipment is being worn at all times.
In addition to the Qualcomm Cloud AI Inference Accelerator, the development kit also houses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Modular Platform along with the Snapdragon X55 Modem-RF, taking full advantage of Qualcomm Technologies’ offerings for application processing and 5G connectivity. As a standalone product, the Qualcomm Cloud AI Inference accelerator is available in three form factors — DM.2e, DM.2, and PCI-e/HHHL — giving customers flexibility with server and appliance designs with considerations to performance (up to 400 TOPS) and power (up to 75W). The accelerator is also powered by the Qualcomm AI Cores, which are the driving force why Qualcomm Technologies’ offers the highest performing AI inference product to date.
Although these  devices will be placed in a datacenter or on site at the network edge, the impact they will make in the field of personalized recommendations, pedestrian safety, transportation, and communications will be profound in the years to come.
