Huawei’s Kirin 970 (Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro’s Chipset) Revealed at IFA 2017

BERLIN — September
2, 2017 – Today at IFA 2017, Huawei Consumer Business Group unveiled a new
era in smartphone innovation. As part of CEO Richard Yu’s keynote address, he
revealed Huawei’s vision for the future of artificial intelligence with the
launch of the Kirin 970. By combining the power of the cloud with the speed and
responsiveness of native AI processing, Huawei is bringing AI experiences to
life and changing the way we interact with our devices.

“As we look to the future of smartphones, we’re at the
threshold of an exciting new era,” said

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group. “Mobile
AI = On-Device AI + Cloud AI. Huawei is committed to developing smart devices
into intelligent devices by building end-to-end capabilities that support
coordinated development of chips, devices, and the cloud. The ultimate goal is
to provide a significantly better user experience. The Kirin 970 is the first
in a series of new advances that will bring powerful AI features to our devices
and take them beyond the competition.”

After years of development, Cloud AI has seen broad
application, but user experience still has room for improvement, including
latency, stability, and privacy. Cloud AI and On-Device AI can complement each
other. On-Device AI offers strong sensing capabilities, which are the
foundation of understanding and assisting people. Sensors produce a large
amount of real-time, scenario-specific, and personalized data. Supported by
strong chip processing capabilities, devices will become more cognitive of user
needs, providing truly personalized and readily accessible services.

Kirin 970 is powered by an 8-core CPU and a new generation 12-core GPU. Built using a 10nm advanced process, the chipset packs 5.5 billion transistors into an area of only one cm.²  Huawei’s new flagship Kirin 970 is Huawei’s first mobile AI computing platform featuring a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Compared to a quad-core Cortex-A73 CPU cluster, the Kirin 970’s new heterogeneous computing architecture delivers up to 25x the performance with 50x greater efficiency. Simply put, the Kirin 970 can perform the same AI computing tasks faster and with far less power. In a benchmark image recognition test, the Kirin 970 processed 2,000 images per minute, which was faster than other chips on the market.

New developments in AI require joint effort across the
entire value chain, involving tens of millions of developers, and the
experience and feedback of hundreds of millions of users. Huawei is positioning
the Kirin 970 as an open platform for mobile AI, opening up the chipset to
developers and partners who can find new and innovative uses for its processing
capabilities.