Xilinx announced that Baidu has deployed Xilinx FPGA-based application acceleration services into its public cloud, specifically for the Baidu FPGA Cloud Server, a new service that leverages Xilinx Kintex FPGAs, tools and the software required for hardware-accelerated data centre applications such as machine learning and data security.
The Baidu FPGA Cloud Server provides a complete FPGA-based hardware and software development environment, including hardware and software design examples, and is designed to help users quickly develop and migrate applications with reduced development costs.
The Baidu service is based on each FPGA instance serving as a dedicated acceleration platform that is not shared between instances or users. The design examples provided services including cover deep learning acceleration, encryption and decryption.
Xilinx claims that FPGA-enabled servers can deliver a 10x to 80x performance per watt advantage compared to CPU-only servers. In addition, as they are dynamically reconfigurable, Xilinx FPGAs can support a range of workloads, including machine learning, data analytics, security and video processing.
- Separately, Baidu announced a partnership with Microsoft for its new open source autonomous driving platform, Apollo. Baidu unveiled Apollo in April, featuring cloud services, software and reference hardware/vehicle platforms, and expects the technology will be running on roads by late 2020.
- In addition, Conexant, a provider of audio and voice technology solutions, announced it was collaborating with Baidu to release development kits and reference designs for device makers to develop far-field voice-enabled artificial intelligent (AI) devices running on Baidu’s DuerOS platform. The development kits and reference designs will feature Conexant’s CX20924 4-microphone and CX20921 2-microphone voice input processing solutions and DuerOS, a conversation-based AI system that enables access to a voice-activated digital assistant for mobile phones, TVs and other devices.
