On July 15, 2021, under the guidance of the China Integrated Circuit Design Innovation Alliance (ICDIA), research by the School of Integrated Circuits of Tsinghua University, ZTE Microelectronics, TCL Industrial Research Institute, Allwinner Technology, Rockchip Microelectronics, and Changan Automobile Research The Intelligent Computing Industry Technology Innovation Alliance (Open NPU Innovation Alliance, referred to as ONIA) jointly initiated by the Institute, Qianhai Qijian, Anmou Technology and other enterprises and institutions was officially established. Mr. Wu Xiongang served as the first chairman, and hired Professor Wei Shaojun from Tsinghua University as the chief consultant, and Mr. Cheng Jinge as the expert consultant.

At the inaugural meeting, ONIA also officially announced the world’s first open source neural network processor instruction set architecture (NPU ISA). This is the world’s first semiconductor technology innovation consortium dedicated to building an open source NPU ISA. In the future, it will formulate, approve and maintain the open source NPU ISA through standard collaboration and other methods, and set the direction for future specifications. The world’s leading technology is the standard intelligent computing industry ecology, realizing the continuous evolution of NPU processor innovation and intelligent computing.

The core of the next generation of intelligent computing is to perceive and process different types of data streams in a massive, high-density and real-time manner. The computing power of intelligent computing is increasingly being provided by the CPU and GPU to be provided by the NPU. At present, the NPU based on Domain Architecture (DSA) has achieved great success. In the future, with the new requirements for diversified computing power stacking and multi-domain computing, a next-generation Domain Architecture – Hyper Domain Architecture (xDSA) is required to meet the corresponding requirements. requirements and challenges, and address fragmentation through a multi-domain approach. The Intelligent Computing Industry Technology Innovation Consortium will promote the technical support of the open source NPU ISA for the next generation of xDAS.

Mr. Wu Xiongang, Chairman of the Intelligent Computing Industry Technology Innovation Consortium, Executive Chairman and CEO of Anmou Technology (China) Co., Ltd., pointed out in his speech: “DSA-based NPU technology is developing rapidly and has become the core technology for building the era of intelligent computing. , there are a large number of NPU architectures in the industry, which has formed ecological fragmentation and increased the difficulty of technological breakthroughs and large-scale applications. In order to accelerate technology development and application implementation, an open source and unified NPU architecture is urgently needed, and an open source system is built around it. Flexible, co-constructed and shared industrial ecology. The establishment of the Intelligent Computing Industry Technology Innovation Consortium is to become an active practitioner of promoting the development of the intelligent computing industry relying on the open source NPU architecture.”

The open source NPU ISA announced by ONIA this time is truly “China’s first release, global open source”, which benefits from the excellent strength of the consortium member units and industrial ecological partners in capital raising, R&D applications and ecological construction. In the future, the consortium will undertake the research and development, maintenance and promotion of the world’s first open source NPU ISA, and will help the development of this open source NPU ISA with the help of the R&D and use experience of enterprises in the industry chain, universities, laboratories, and industrial incubators. Application landing. The consortium will also serve as a unified, advanced and efficient ecological practitioner of the intelligent computing industry in China, support technological evolution, support the industry and academia to achieve community cooperation, gather industrial open source ecological forces to jointly carry out research on intelligent computing industry standards, and build a platform from China. Initiated, the intelligent computing industry ecology based on the world’s leading technology.

The organizational structure of the “Intelligent Computing Industry Technology Innovation Consortium” is composed of council member units, strategic committees, committee members, and community members. Currently, more than 50 industry-leading companies, think tanks, and research institutions have joined as founding members. The first batch of council members include: School of Integrated Circuits, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen Zhongxing Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., TCL Group Industrial Research Institute, Rockchip Microelectronics Co., Ltd., Allwinner Technology Co., Ltd., Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. Intelligent Chemical Research Institute, Qianhai Qijian Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Anmou Technology (China) Co., Ltd., etc.; it is expected that by the end of 2021, the total number of various member units will exceed 100.