The Gloria AI Edge Box is powered by Qualcomm’s Cloud AI 100 for low-power, high-performance edge applications.
Wireless technology solutions developer Qualcomm Technologies recently unveiled the new Gloria AI Edge Box alongside Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn Industrial Internet. The two companies were involved in the design, manufacturing and launch of the new product. The new on-premises system will be equipped with the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 inference accelerator, the company’s cloud AI inferencing solution for data center providers. According to a press release, Vietnamese-based cybersecurity technology provider Bkav Corporation will be Qualcomm and Foxconn’s first customer to deploy the solution as part of its AI View smart security camera system portfolio.
The compact Gloria AI Edge Box is an AI-enabled machine vision platform that can support up to 24 high-definition cameras for various video analytics applications, such as traffic analysis, security monitoring, and small retail spaces. The system is a fully customized turnkey commercial device and can also support Sub-6 and mmWave (millimeter wave) 5G connectivity, allowing it to be used in a number of environments and sectors. In addition, Gloria can support indoor and outdoor high operating temperature environments. Combined with Qualcomm’s Cloud AI 100, the new system offers high-speed performance with low power consumption at a competitive price point.
“We are excited to work with Foxconn Industrial Internet and support BKAV to accelerate the adoption of intelligent edge applications,” said Keith Kressin, SVP & GM of Computing and Edge Cloud at Qualcomm Technologies. “We anticipate broad areas of adoption of Foxconn Industrial Internet’s Gloria platform using our leading performance per watt AI solution, the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100. We expect customer adoption of Gloria to include a variety of environments such as retail centers, warehouses, data centers, and factories.”
Qualcomm’s Cloud AI 100 accelerator technology employs up to 16 AI Cores (AICs) and can scale from 15-watt up to 75-watt power envelopes. These AIC chiplets are connected via a proprietary high-speed interconnect. This is similar to the silicon engine technology found in the Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platform Hexagon and Tensor Accelerator architectures.
The AI 100 is available in either small Dual M.2 style plug-in cards for AI edge applications or PCI Express Gen 3/4 accelerator cards for cloud data servers. Depending on the cores, the module currently offers up to 144 MB of fast on-die SRAM. This can interface with up to 32 GB of on-card or in-system LPDDR4 DRAM. According to Qualcomm, the Gloria AI Edge Box can perform significantly better inferencing compared to other competitive solutions on the market in applications such as image recognition.
However, one of the key advantages of the Gloria platform is its access to Qualcomm’s deep software tools and library support. Support for native AI frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Caffe will allow AI developers to code on any platform and target for optimization via the Qualcomm Cloud AI 100.
The Gloria AI Edge Box is expected to help accelerate the adoption of edge and AI inference applications in numerous industries. “Gloria will support us to accelerate AI applications in businesses and government, and revolutionize our work with smart cities, smart construction, and agriculture, among other verticals,” shared Nguyen Tu Quang, Chairman and CEO of Bkav.
Engineering samples will be available later this year, while commercial availability is expected to occur around the second quarter of 2022. Qualcomm is currently shipping its AI 100 devkit, which is powered by a Snapdragon 865 platform host processor and includes 5G connectivity supported by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 Modem-RF System, to customers for development efforts.
For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website here.
