Huawei announces its AI powered Kirin 970 processor

Huawei at the IFA 2017 tech show in Berlin announced its next-generation processor for high-end devices called Kirin 970. It is the first mobile SoC that has its own AI processor built in.

The Kirin 970 is an octa-core processor with four high performance ARM Cortex A73 cores clocked up to 2.4GHz and four low powered ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked up to 1.8GHz, same as Kirin 960. But it is manufactured using 10nm process technology compared to 16nm process in the predecessor for improved performance. 10nm is the same process used in other powerful chips like Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 and Samsung's Exynos 8895.

The chip gets the latest and faster ARM Mali-G72 12-core GPU to deliver improved performance and efficiency. It also supports HDR, 4K video recording at 60fps. 

However, the main highlight of the Kirin 970 processor is the dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), built right onto the chip, which will deliver faster and efficient AI function. Thanks to the integration of the NPU, the Kirin 970 is said to deliver up to 25x the performance of a CPU with 50x greater efficiency for tasks like voice recognition, real-time image,  intelligent photography, and other AI related task.

It has a new dual ISP supporting improve noise reduction, 4-way hybrid auto-focus, and improved low light shooting and capture of moving subjects without motion blur. It also supports LTE Cat 18 for download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps.

The first phones to use Huaweo's Kirin 960 chip will be the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, which will be introduced on October 16. 

Via