Microsoft Unveils Windows ML With Intel Movidius VPU

Microsoft unveiled a new OS aimed at machine learning, Windows ML. Microsoft announced that it would be including an Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing Units (VPU) for Windows ML hardware. This can help accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) workloads at the edge.

Microsoft unveiled a new OS aimed at machine learning, Windows ML. Microsoft announced that it would be including an Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing Units (VPU) for Windows ML hardware. This can help accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) workloads at the edge.

As ML and AI is becoming more mainstream and the advantages are becoming more clear, developers need more tools to help them work with these new technologies. The new Windows ML allows developers to perform ML tasks in the Windows OS. Windows ML is able to effectively distribute AI workloads across multiple hardware types. To help build deep neural network applications on Windows clients, Microsoft will be working with Intel, placing its Movidius VPU at the edge. The Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU is a SoC with a dedicated neural compute engine for hardware acceleration of deep learning inference at the edge. The main design of this VPU is to run deep neural networks at high speed and low power to offload specific AI tasks from burdening other hardware.

Combining these technologies will benefit users by providing independent software vendors the option of a dedicated deep learning inference solution, freeing up traditional hardware for other workloads or reducing the overall system power consumption without requiring custom code. The two companies state that the combined technology can be used for use cases such as personal assistants, enhanced biometric security, smart music, and photo search and recognition.

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