Samsung has announced that it plans to develop its neural processing unit (NPU) capabilities in order to deliver enhanced AI applications in the future. With this announcement, the Korean firm said that it will create 2,000 new jobs related to the field, worldwide, by 2030. In order to hire more skilled people for these vacancies, Samsung will be collaborating with more universities and research institutes to help them develop the talent they need.
Discussing the plans, Inyup Kang, president of Systems LSI Business at Samsung Electronics, said:
“For the coming age of AI, Samsung is committed to delivering industry-leading advancements brought to life by our NPU technologies. As we leverage our differentiated technology, close partnerships with global institutes and active investment in top talent, we are excited to take future AI processing capabilities to the next level.”
With the new generation of NPU technologies, Samsung will develop the hardware so that they’re optimised to power in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and next-generation data centres that will be processing big data.
Samsung introduced its first NPU in the Exynos 9820 which shipped in the European variant of its Galaxy S10. The Exynos 9820 allows devices to manage AI and machine learning tasks separately and perform AI tasks on the device rather than needing to connect to a network to perform these tasks.
Topping off the announcement, Samsung said its LSI Business and Advanced Institute of Technology R&D arm, plans to turn the current NPU research into things like neuromorphic processors that could operate at the same level as a human brain - it’ll definitely be interesting to see what applications are made possible with that hardware.