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Aug 27, 2020

Kneron Unveils Next-Gen AI Chip — No Compromise AI For Smart Devices

Kneron’s KL720 chip provides best-in-class performance, energy-efficiency, privacy, and security for consumer smart devices

San Diego, CA, August 27th, 2020 — Kneron, the San Diego-based edge AI solutions provider backed by the likes of Alibaba, Sequoia, Horizons Ventures, Qualcomm, and SparkLabs Taipei, today announces its new state of the art AI chip: the Kneron KL720.

KL720 will be the brain for your smart devices. It will allow devices to recognize what they could previously only see, and listen to what they could previously only hear. While competitors rely on unsophisticated 2D solutions that lack security, Kneron is bringing its 3D AI capabilities to new industries. It can be used in everything from a Tesla to a toaster.

KL720 is not only the most powerful and energy-efficient chip Kneron has built, it also outclasses competing offerings. Compared to Intel’s Movidius AI chips, KL720 is twice as energy-efficient for similar performance and at half the cost. A DJI drone that currently uses a Movidius chip would double its battery life by using a Kneron chip, without any loss of power. Kneron’s solution can be used in devices that would not be practical for Intel’s chips, either because they’re too expensive or they require too much battery power to operate. KL720 is also 4x more efficient than Google’s Coral edge TPU according to MobileNetV2 benchmark results.

KL720 offers significantly enhanced processing power, processing images up to 4K resolution and videos up to Full HD 1080p resolution. Where cameras using competitors’ technology can only see what’s directly in front of them, a Ring doorbell powered by KL720 could see your whole front garden, and accurately identify anyone approaching through its ultra-secure facial recognition which can’t be fooled by masks, images or videos.

It also marks a new standard for audio processing — other AI chips can recognise simple “wake-up” words, but KL720 supports full natural language processing. KL720 can hold an entire dictionary’s worth of words for use in translation applications and more, while chips from competitors like Syntiant must make do with 40+ keywords. Rather saying hi to activate your Alexa, you could have an immediate conversation.

Albert Liu, Founder & CEO of Kneron, says: “KL720 combines power with unmatched energy-efficiency and Kneron’s industry-leading AI algorithms to enable a new era for smart devices. Its low cost enables even more devices to take advantage of the benefits of edge AI, protecting user privacy, to an extent competitors can't match. Combined with our existing KL520, we are proud to offer the most comprehensive suite of AI chips and software for devices on the market.” KNEO, Kneron’s private mesh network for AI devices, connects all these sensors together. KL720 combined with KNEO offers the best mix of performance, energy-efficiency, privacy, and security in the consumer AI market. KL720 can be reconfigured for different use cases, and run AI apps downloaded from the KNEO AI app store.

KL720 is now available for sampling by device manufacturers. For more information, please visit http://www.kneron.com/solutions/soc/.
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About Kneron
Kneron is a San Diego based technology company that was founded in 2015. It develops both hardware and software products, which are used in smart devices to run and power AI applications. Kneron is a single port of call for device manufacturers who want to integrate AI into their products. The products include hardware such as AI chips and software such as AI models, that device manufacturers can use in everything from autonomous cars, all the way down to a smart fridge, doorbell, or any Internet of Things device. Kneron primarily solves three main problems for smart devices running AI — security, energy and cost, thereby enabling AI everywhere and for everyone. Kneron’s solutions are reconfigurable, and will be as efficient at processing image and audio AI models in the future as they are now. It has raised over $70mn to date and is backed by Horizons Ventures, Alibaba, Qualcomm, Sequoia, and more. For further information about Kneron, please visit: http://www.kneron.com/about.php
Kneron KL720 | Kneron – Full Stack Edge AI
Kneron KL720 | Kneron – Full Stack Edge AI

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