zlacker

>>ekianj+(OP)
When something has an 30 TOPS NPU, what are the implications? Do NPUs like this have some common backend that ggml/llama.cpp targets? Is it proprietary and only works for some specific software? Does it have access to all the system RAM and at what bandwidth?

I know the concept has been around for a while but no idea if it actually means anything. I assume that people are targeting ones in common devices like Apple, but what about here?

>>andy99+Ta
The specific NPU doesn't seem to be mentioned in TFA, but my guess is that the blessed way to deal with it is the Neon SDK: https://www.arm.com/technologies/neon

I've not found Neon to be fun or easy to use, and I frequently see devices ignoring the NPU and inferring on CPU because it's easier. Maybe you get lucky and someone has made a backend for something specific you want, but it's not common.

>>Y_Y+Fh
TFA does directly mention the NPU "Arm-China Zhouyi: 30 TOPS (Dedicated)"

"you cannot simply use standard versions of PyTorch or TensorFlow out of the box. You must use the NeuralONE AI SDK."

Neon is a SIMD instruction set for the CPU, not a separate accelerator. It doesn't need an SDK to use, it's supported by compiler intrinsics and assembly language in any modern ARM compiler.

>>snops+Xk1
Quite right, I mixed up Neon with NN:

https://www.arm.com/products/silicon-ip-cpu/ethos/arm-nn