On April 20th, Alibaba Group announced that it will acquire Zhongtian Microsystems Co., Ltd., the only independent embedded CPU IP Core company in mainland China.

Zhongtianwei, the only large-scale mass-produced self-embedded CPU IP Core company in mainland China, specializes in 32-bit embedded CPU IP R&D and scale application, targeting IoT in multimedia, security, home, transportation, smart cities, etc. More than 700 million chips have been shipped worldwide.

According to online data, the company builds a chip software and hardware platform around its own embedded CK-CPU, providing core competitiveness, cost-effective and customized CPU IP core and related SOC design and development platform for customers in various industry segments. Software toolchain and integrated development environment.

At present, the company has formed CK610 and CK800 series CPU cores for high, medium and low applications in various application fields.

The chip is the hardware core for connection, control and calculation, and is the basis for building the software and hardware capabilities of the end cloud. IP Core is called “Intellectual Property Core” and refers to a reusable module provided by one party in the form of logic unit and chip design. Embedded CPU IP Core is the "brain" of the system chip.

"Acquisition of Zhongtianwei is an important part of Alibaba's chip layout." Alibaba CTO Zhang Jianfeng said that IP Core is the core of the basic chip capability, and entering the IP Core field is the basis for the Chinese chip to achieve "autonomous controllable".

Zhongtianwei founder Yan Xiaolang said, "Zhongtianwei team is committed to promoting the independent research and development of domestic CPUs. After joining Alibaba, it hopes to promote the large-scale commercial use of domestic independent chips through Ali's powerful technology platform and ecosystem integration capabilities. Accelerate the contribution of 'China Core' in various fields of application."

Alibaba's wholly-owned acquisition of Zhongtianwei will integrate scientific research forces at a greater level and achieve breakthroughs in chip core technology capabilities. Regardless of the development of the chip industry, or the national demand for independent research and development of core technologies, it will play a driving role.

As early as 2015, Ali worked closely with Hangzhou Zhongtian Microsystems Co., Ltd. to develop the Yun on Chip architecture for various segments of the Internet of Things. In January 2016, Ali became the largest shareholder of Zhongtianwei.

Since then, in June 2017, Ali has invested 500 million in Zhongtian Micro and officially entered the field of chip infrastructure design. The latter, as a member of Alibaba Cloud's earliest entry into the Internet of Things (IoT) Partner Program, will also fully promote the large-scale application of IoT chips in the terminal through the Alibaba Cloud Link Market in the chip field.

Zhongtianwei has released Alibaba Cloud's three "cloud chips" based on the AliOS hardware and software framework, including computer vision chips, integrated access security MCU platform chips, and the world's first AliOS-based pole launched in cooperation with ZTE Microelectronics. Low-power NB-IoT IoT security chip.

Earlier, Alibaba Dharma has set up a chip technology team and is developing a neural network chip, Ali-NPU. Ali also invested in five chip companies including Cambrian, Barefoot Networks, Shenjian, Kneron, and ASR.

Yesterday, Alibaba Dharma announced that it is developing a neural network chip - Ali-NPU

The US Trade Representative Office said it plans to set restrictions on Alibaba's cloud computing business in the United States, such as measures that cannot be expanded. In order to firmly grasp the initiative in its own hands and reduce the dependence on imported chips, Aridama has begun to set up its own chip research and development team and is developing a neural network chip - Ali-NPU.

It is reported that the current R&D team of Alibaba has dozens of people in the United States and Shanghai, and it is expected to reach 100 by the end of the year. Earlier, Ali had invested in a number of chip companies such as Cambrian, Barefoot Networks, Shenjian, Keneron, ASR, and Zhongtianwei to prepare for the AI chip layout. At this time, Ali announced the news, demonstrating his technical ability, and also saw Alibaba's determination in technology independent research and development.

The Ali-NPU chip will be used for AI inference calculations such as image and video analysis and machine learning. The development of this chip will better realize the application of AI intelligence in business scenarios in the future, and solve the AI inference operation problem of commercial scenes such as image, video recognition and cloud computing, improve computing efficiency and reduce cost.

According to Alifang, the Ali-NPU independently developed by Alibaba is based on the advantages of a large number of algorithm models accumulated by the Ali Machinery Intelligent Technology Laboratory in the AI field. The microstructure and instruction set are designed according to the AI algorithm model to achieve the minimum cost. The largest amount of AI model algorithm operation.

According to the design, Alibaba's Ali-NPU performance will be 10 times that of the mainstream CPU and GPU architecture AI chips currently on the market, while manufacturing cost and power consumption are only half, and the price/performance ratio is more than 40 times. In the future, Ali-NPU's capabilities will not only better meet the needs of video and image processing, but also enable the output of computing power through Alibaba Cloud to empower all walks of life.

Source: International Electronic Business