$1,500 gets you a robo-dog that can’t handle stairs, so here’s a flying camera, too
Video Amazon has created another custom chip capable of speeding up artificial intelligence in home electronics. On Tuesday the online souk and cloud computing giant introduced a host of new gadgets, including a robot and a wall-mount home-organizing computer, with AI hardware acceleration that can personalize the equipment to your daily routines and habits. The latest chip in question is the AZ2 «neural edge» processor, which will be in the company’s new Amazon Echo Show 15 touchscreen device, a 15.6-inch smart display for your wall that can be a digital organizer or a TV. The AZ2 will help the computer recognize your face, and immediately load up a personalized screen for you that may include to-do-lists, sticky notes, calendars and more. The display will also have voice recognition features accelerated by Amazon’s silicon. The AZ2 apparently performs calculations 22 times faster than its predecessor, the AZ1, which was made in partnership with MediaTek and included in the Echo Show 10. The AZ2 will be fast enough to process AI applications like voice recognition locally without relying on cloud servers, Amazon said. The ability to process voice operations on the device gives users more control over data privacy options, which was a recurring theme at today’s big launch event. The custom AI accelerator will be paired with an Amlogic PopcornA octa-core system-on-chip in the gizmo; Amlogic is an Arm licensee.
