According to a report by the US media on November 1, Panos Panay, vice president of Microsoft's equipment, said that Microsoft is developing AI chips for a new generation of HoloLens holographic glasses, which can also be used in other hardware products.
In July of this year, Microsoft said it developed a processor for the second-generation HoloLens glasses. HoloLens allows users to touch and interact with digital images that are superimposed on the real world. Microsoft calls it "mixed reality." The AI ​​chip will enable HoloLens to recognize objects and so on within the line of sight. This marks the first time Microsoft has entered the field of AI chips and competes with rivals such as Apple and Google.
At the same time, Microsoft is also expanding its product line to apply AI chips to other devices. "We must continue to look for silicon chips, develop chip sets, bring sensors into real life and connect people with products," said Panay. Microsoft has expanded its product line for the Tablet PC Surface, released in 2012, including notebooks and desktops. Microsoft products also have Xbox game controllers and HoloLens glasses.
At present, the field of AI chips is fiercely competitive. Huawei's new Mate 10 smartphone this year has built-in AI chip Kirin970, and Apple's new iPhone also has built-in A11 bionics chip. The built-in chip enables the use of AI technology on the device, meaning that these devices do not need to communicate with the cloud to handle complex AI tasks, thereby making task processing more efficient.
Panay said that Microsoft has a lot of hardware partners to jointly achieve internal development, so that the chip into the market. For example, Huawei and Lenovo developed tablet and keyboard devices using the Windows system, and the operating system was developed by Microsoft. Microsoft will also license chips for partners. "I think the most important thing in the Surface and chip development is to have the opportunity to guarantee our technical innovation on the Surface and develop technology with our partners, so that everyone has the opportunity to use. This is our original intention."
(Internship compilation: Wang Wei reviewer: Liu Yang)