Intel Leverages Movidius Neural Compute Stick To Bring AI To The Masses

Intel has rolled out a new program that is aimed at making it easier for developers to bring AI prototypes to market. The new program is called “AI: In Production” and works along with the Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick (NCS) that launched last July. That Movidius device has a developer base in the tens of thousands currently according to Intel.

Intel wrote, “Once developers have a prototype, the next step is to take it into production, which can be challenging and costly for small companies and entrepreneurs. To make it easier, Intel selected AAEON Technologies, a leading manufacturer of advanced industrial and embedded computing platforms, as the first Intel AI: In Production partner. Through the program, AAEON provides two streamlined production paths for developers integrating the low-power Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) into their product designs.”

The first of those options is a new AI Core from AAEON called the “Up Bridge the Gap.” This device is a mini-PCIe module that has an Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU aboard that is meant to work with a range of x86 host platforms. 

Intel notes that if a company needs more customization, AAEON has development and board manufacturing services to allow the move from Neural Compute Stick-based prototypes to custom boards. Intel notes that it already has customers building products through the Intel AI: In Production program. The first of those products is the Conex and the product is a point of sale display system for the cosmetics industry. “Our innovation team started prototyping advanced retail deep learning algorithms and tested the Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick,” said Nicolas Lorin, president of CONEX.

“Intel AI: In Production means we can expect many more innovative AI-centric products coming to market from the diverse and growing segment of technologies utilizing Intel technology for low-power inference at the edge,” added Remi El-Ouazzane, Intel vice president and general manager of Intel Movidius.