Huawei Launches AI Processor and MindSpore 

SHENZHEN, China, August 23, 2019 -- Huawei launched an AI processor dubbed the Ascend 910 and an all-scenario AI computing framework, MindSpore.

Ascend 910

The Ascend 910 is a new AI processor that belongs to Huawei's series of Ascend-Max chipsets. Huawei announced the processor's planned specs at its 2018 flagship event, Huawei Connect. After a year of ongoing development, test results now show that the Ascend 910 processor delivers on its performance goals with much lower power consumption than originally planned.

Ascend 910 is used for AI model training. In a typical training session based on ResNet-50, the combination of Ascend 910 and MindSpore is about two times faster at training AI models than other mainstream training cards using TensorFlow.

Moving forward, Huawei will continue investing in AI processors to deliver more abundant, affordable, and adaptable computing power that meets the needs of a broad range of scenarios (e.g., edge computing, on-vehicle computing for autonomous driving, and training).

MindSpore: All-scenario AI computing framework

Huawei also launched MindSpore today, an AI computing framework that supports development for AI applications in all scenarios.

AI computing frameworks are critical to making AI application development easier, making AI applications more pervasive and accessible, and ensuring privacy protection.

In 2018, Huawei announced the three development goals for its AI framework:

• Easy development
• Efficient execution
• Adaptable to all scenarios

MindSpore marks progress towards these goals. As privacy protection grows more important than ever, support for all scenarios is essential for enabling secure, pervasive AI. This is a key component in the MindSpore framework, which can readily adapt to different deployment needs. Resource budget environments can be as large and complicated or small and simple as needed – MindSpore supports them all.

MindSpore helps ensure user privacy because it only deals with gradient and model information that has already been processed. It doesn't process the data itself, so private user data can be protected even in cross-scenario environments. In addition, MindSpore has built-in model protection technology to ensure that models are secure and trustworthy.

The MindSpore AI framework is adaptable to a series of scenarios and provides on-demand cooperation between them. Its "AI Algorithm As Code" design concept allows developers to develop advanced AI applications with ease and train their models more quickly.

Full details: https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2019/8/Huawei-Ascend-910-most-powerful-AI-processor

Source: Huawei