English

By Fei Xie

Baidu today debuted its first independently researched AI chip dubbed Kunlun at the Baidu Create AI developer conference in Beijing.

This chip joins its rival efforts and helps Baidu to become a processor in the AI field, along with other technology giants, which include Google, Microsoft, and Huawei Technologies Co.

Kunlun has been created to manage AI models for edge workloads and cloud computing through a data center. The Kunlun 818-300 model will be used for training AI, and the Kunlun 818-100 for inference, as reported by the China Securities Journal on Wednesday.

According to the company, Baidu started working with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) AI accelerator for more in-depth learning in 2011, and that Kunlun is almost 30 times faster than the first FPGA chip from Baidu. The chip is made with Samsung's 14nm processor, and could achieve 260 tera-operations per second (TOPS) at 100 watts and is capable of a 512GB/second memory bandwidth.

FPGA chips are also at the center of Microsoft's Project Brainwave for fast AI processing in the cloud. Though, Liyan Hong, the CEO of Baidu believes that Kunlun is the most significant and uncomparable chip in the artificial intelligence field.

However, some industry insiders point out that, from information shared by Baidu about Kunlun, there exists disparity with the Cambricon chip from the aspect of product performance. But, it is undeniable that "Baidu's years of experience in optimizing the performance of these AI services and frameworks afforded the company the expertise required to build a world-class AI chip." as reported by the China Securities Journal on Wednesday.

Leveraged by Kunlun, Baidu's AI ecosystem obtains access to various AI scenarios like search ranking and in-depth learning frameworks. Besides, the company states that the Kunlun chip could also support multiple AI applications, including voice recognition, language processing, and large-scale recommendations.

"For its high-end chips, China has been dependent on imports a lot," said Liyan Hong, the CEO of Baidu. However, with the recent threat to one of the Chinese Companies ZTE, China is looking to ramp up its domestic processor production, and the appearance of Kunlun breaks the ice and provides hope for the future industry.

At the same time, the issuance of Kunlun is not only helping the Chinese government to implement its 2025 plan, which aims to have domestic chips account for 40 percent of its need in 2025, but also contributes to Baidu's interests.