Yizhi Electronics: AI chip shipments reach millions

Yizhi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yizhi Electronic) is a system solution provider with AI machine vision algorithms and SoC chip design as its core. Based on AI SoC chips with independent IP, it focuses on AI empowerment in the fields of video security, automotive electronics, and smart hardware, and provides full-stack overall solutions.

Wu Lang, co-founder and COO of Yizhi Electronics, said, "From the beginning of the company, we have determined the development direction of artificial intelligence chips. "Yizhi" means to empower trillions of devices with intelligence. From the perspective of time, we may be the first team with a semiconductor background in mainland China to take artificial intelligence as the overall development direction of the company. At that time, there was a lack of dedicated AI SoC chips to support the implementation of AI on end devices. "Computing power" is the basic infrastructure of the new infrastructure. We believe that it is a very meaningful thing to tackle and break through the new fortress of end-side AI SoC chips."

In the early days of the company, as the AI ​​chip craze had just started, Yichi Electronics also faced the uncertainty of whether future scenarios could be implemented and whether product technology could be successful, as well as the lack of talent. However, after four years of hard work and development, Yichi Electronics solved these problems one by one and successfully achieved large-scale mass production of products.

Adhere to independent research and development, high cost-effective products

At present, Yizhi Electronics has excellent AI algorithm IP capabilities, and its chips are highly available and practical. Compared with its peers, it is one of the few AI chip companies in the industry that has both AI IP self-development capabilities and SoC chip design capabilities.

Based on the implementation experience of the past two years, the industry has reached a consensus: AI is not just an IP, but a systematic technical solution that leads the implementation, and AI is currently non-standard. Therefore, AI chip companies with independent IP are more likely to cross the technical research and development threshold from 0 to 1 in implementation. Although there are many AI chips with integrated NPU in the industry, there are actually very few that have been truly mass-produced on a large scale.

The integration of AI and chips is the integration of algorithms and computing power. This is the only way for AI to be implemented that many people agree on. Therefore, traditional chip companies are now working hard to make up for the shortcomings of algorithms, and algorithm companies are working hard to seek synergy with chips.

Wu Lang said, "When we make a chip, we start from the IP, and the research and development takes at least 18 months. The products we are making now are aimed at the market in 1-2 years. Yizhi Electronics has been accumulating the ability to develop its own IP since 2016, and has now achieved independent research and development of core IPs including NPU and ISP. Compared with SoC manufacturers that use third-party IP, Yizhi Electronics has obvious technical advantages in supporting third-party customized algorithms; compared with solutions using AI coprocessors, Yizhi Electronics' AI SoC chips have cost-effectiveness and cost advantages."

"At the same time, AI application scenarios are very fragmented, and there are differences in usage scenarios such as office buildings, schools, and hospitals. If we want to make standardized algorithms face different application scenarios, we must develop products based on the scenarios. Therefore, self-developed IP can avoid over-design, better meet customers' needs for a balance between power consumption and performance, and achieve the best cost-effectiveness. Yizhi Electronics' market advantage lies in that it can take into account costs while providing a new generation of technology-enabled products, and can control costs at a level comparable to traditional products in the market. The promotion method of increasing quantity without increasing prices is the most acceptable in the market."

AI chip shipments reach millions

In 2019, Yizhi Electronics successfully mass-produced edge AI SoC chips that integrated self-developed NPU, and was the first in the industry to launch a full-stack (Turnkey) solution. Subsequently, it released a multi-computing, multi-scenario AI chip product matrix, covering a variety of edge AI business scenarios. With its first-mover advantage in the field of edge AI SoC chips and support strategies for application scenarios, it has helped hundreds of partners achieve mass production of edge AI products, forming a relatively complete technical ecosystem in the field of edge AI.

Wu Lang believes that excellent algorithm hardware and SoC integration capabilities are the core technical advantages of Yizhi Electronics. Facing application scenarios, Yizhi Electronics pursues "solving all problems with one chip" and is committed to providing customers with system-level chip solutions that are easy to test, easy to mass produce, and easy to maintain. In the first quarter of 2020, we launched a turnkey solution for the machine vision end-side AI SoC chip SV806 based on our self-developed NPU. In the industry, this solution has the competitive advantages of high integration, streamlined peripherals, and high cost performance.

For example, some of the main control chips currently used in face recognition attendance and access control terminals on the market lack NPU, and some need to integrate third-party algorithms. In order to meet the functions of face recognition attendance and access control, many peripheral devices need to be added, which greatly increases the motherboard area. The SV806 main control chip integrates the NPU and ISP independently developed by Yizhi Electronics, and SIP (packaged) 256MB of DDR, which truly realizes the ultimate simplification of the periphery in chip design.

With such a high level of integration, SV806 also presents the advantage of high cost performance. Yizhi Electronics packages CPU+DDR+NPU+ISP+algorithm as a whole and provides it to customers. From the evaluation results, the self-developed NPU and ISP are of outstanding quality and suitable for various complex working conditions, allowing SV806 to achieve the widespread promotion of face recognition technology in terminal devices.

At present, well-known facial recognition brands such as Comet, Anviz, and Hanwang have reached strategic and comprehensive cooperation with Yizhi Electronics to carry out in-depth product research and development cooperation, and jointly promote the implementation of visual AI technology in the pan-security market. This year, a number of new-generation panel machines based on SV806 (face recognition attendance access control, video intercom, entrance and exit gates, etc.) have been launched on the market, effectively empowering many fields such as smart cities, smart campuses, smart communities, smart buildings, and smart parks.

With its excellent technology productization and commercialization capabilities, Yichi Electronics has achieved shipments of millions of AI chips in 2020, and is in a leading position among domestic edge AI chip companies.

Laying out next-generation technology

Since the establishment of the company, Yichi Electronics has always adhered to the technical route of independent IP research and development. Except for the CPU, all other IPs of the mass-produced AI SoC chips are self-developed. So far, it has applied for more than 110 domestic and foreign invention patents.

With its technological advantages in the field of edge AI SoC chips, in 2020, Yichi Electronics was selected into the EETimes Silicon100 list, and won the annual best AI commercial growth award, the best edge AI chip award for AI new infrastructure, and the a&s top 50 smart security award in China.

As a technology-driven enterprise, Yichi Electronics is stepping up the mass production of the next-generation edge AI SoC chips, and will soon launch machine vision AI chips with higher computing power and higher performance to meet the needs of the new generation of panel machines and AI IPC (intelligent network camera) markets.

Wu Lang believes that machine vision products have gone through the stage of seeing clearly, and AI SoC chips will make devices understand and make our lives smarter. In the stage of seeing clearly, the market dominance is determined by the company with the best image quality. In the next stage of understanding, the market pattern will definitely be dominated by the company with the best AI implementation.

"This year is the first year of the prevention and control of the epidemic. I personally believe that it is also the first year that AI chips have been widely implemented in the terminal field. This year, our shipments of terminal AI chips have exceeded one million. We will firmly move towards the path of AI empowering trillions of devices and increase investment in AI technology and product research and development. We hope that the new generation of AI chips brought by Yichi Electronics next year will help more partners to promote AI technology in a wider range of products and realize AI empowerment in all industries." Wu Lang said.

In 2021, Yizhi Electronics will actively embrace market changes, continue to explore the video security, automotive electronics, and smart hardware markets, increase investment in the new generation of AI SoC chips, and bring higher-end computing power solutions to the market. Wu Lang said, "We hope that through our efforts, we can bring useful products to colleagues in the industry, more solution providers, and friends to meet the market's intelligent needs."