Hailo has launched a new range of M.2 and mini-PCIe cards designed for Linux systems. These recently developed modules feature Hailo-8 NPUs with a maximum of 26-TOPS. These Neural processing units (NPUs) are chips with specially designed control and arithmetic logic for executing machine learning algorithms, often working with models like artificial neural networks (ANNs) or random forests (RFs). Hailo claims that their new M.2 M-key is a 2242 form-factor accelerator that is driven by Halio-8, marking the first instance in a mini-PCIe design. They claim it to be the world’s highest-performing AI M.2 module, winning by a large margin against Google Coral M.2 or AAEON AI Core cards.
The Hailo-8 M.2 AI Acceleration Module utilizes PCIe Gen3 x4. In contrast, the mini-PCIe accelerator will provide identical NPU functionality, only with PCIe Gen3 x1. The acceleration cards are compatible with all Linux-based systems and will soon offer support for Windows. Hailo asserts that their Hailo-8 chip, measuring 17 x 17mm, surpasses Google’s Edge TPU and Intel’s Movidius Myriad X in terms of TOPS per watt performance. The updated Hailo-8 can function more efficiently and quickly with AI semantic segmentation and object detection tasks.
These modules have potential uses in smart cities, self-driving cars, homes, and industrial security. Particularly in scenarios where numerous cameras and sensors require real-time processing and analysis. The company released benchmarks demonstrating the Hailo-8 M.2 module’s AI performance to be 26 times better than Myriad-X and 13 times better than Edge TPU in frames per second.
The recently introduced Hailo-8 features a unique dataflow architecture based on structure, enabling efficient memory access, thanks to a distributed memory fabric and custom pipeline elements. Hailo states that the data flow-oriented interconnect can adjust to the neural network’s structure, allowing for optimal resource utilization.
More details about the Hailo-8 M.2 card can be found on the product page, as well as the announcement mentioning the upcoming mini PCIe card.
