Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics promised to strengthen its neural processing unit (NPU) capabilities. Applications for NPUs will expand into automotive processors that power in-vehicle infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems and data centers for big data processing.

Samsung said Tuesday in a statement that it would expand collaboration with distinguished research institutes and universities and support the nurturing of future talent in the field of AI, including deep learning and neural processing.

"For the coming age of AI, Samsung is committed to delivering industry-leading advancements brought to life by our NPU technologies," said Kang In-yup, president of Samsung's system LSI business. "As we leverage our differentiated technology, close partnerships with global institutes and active investment in top talent, we are excited to take future AI processing capabilities to the next level"

Samsung said it would offer advanced on-device AI features for high-performance mobile chips. Applications for Samsung’s NPUs will expand into areas such as automotive processors that power in-vehicle infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems as well as next-generation data centers optimized for big data processing.

The world's largest microchip producer said it would evolve its NPU research into novel AI hardware technologies such as neuromorphic processors that aim to operate at the level of a human brain.

Samsung has revealed a massive investment to strengthen its competitiveness in System LSI and foundry businesses. LSI, also known as Large-Scale-Integration, is a chip-making process in which thousands of transistors are integrated or embedded onto a single silicon chip. Foundry refers to a semiconductor fabrication plant operation.

Samsung's Exynos 9820, released last year, is a premium mobile application processor that is powerful enough to process artificial intelligence-related tasks by itself. It features an integrated NPU that specializes in the acceleration of machine learning algorithms.