Google unwraps its gateway drug: Edge TPU chips for IoT AI code

Google has designed a low-power version of its homegrown AI math accelerator, dubbed it the Edge TPU, and promised to ship it to developers by October. Announced at Google Next 2018 today, the ASIC is a cutdown edition of its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) family of in-house-designed coprocessors. TPUs are used internally at …

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Hope Pi are getting a kick back for that base board design...

[Charlie Clark]

Why? Open source hardware design is often its own reward.

[Red Ted]

Don't be afraid

... be very very frightened!

[wsm]

Is that so?

I understand why Google wants own the IoT (global domination of all things that tech can touch, and more) but what makes them think that people want the internet on everything?

If given a choice, I will always want my appliances simple. I don't want a toaster that talks back or reports to Google that I burnt the whole wheat again.

[Robin]

Re: Is that so?

"or reports to Google that I burnt the whole wheat again."

Or in my case, the whole house. Must stop making toast after a few jars!

[Tigra 07]

Re: Robin

"Ok Google, make me some toast."

"I'm sorry but I can't do that Dave...You're out of bread..."

[jake]

So let me get this right ...

... the gootards expect me to allow all my IoT devices to go through alphabet's spy on everybody systems? May I scream it for us all?

DO NOT WANT!

_{Not that I plan to use any IoT crap, you understand ...}

[A Dark Germ]

Don't see the point of ML on an edge device.

Normally an edge device is a very low power simple functioning device.

It the device is running Linux then it is IT.

IoT runs from micro-controllers 'MCU' that are low power and don't require high CPU use.

Google is like all IT companies trying to reach into IoT land.

They forget IoT talks to IT devices, these do the heavy work of TCP/IP MQTT & security when talking to the back-end system.

We have a boarder like BREXIT!

I wish people would understand the sales pitches are just Google pushing small folk out of the IoT business. Bullies in fact like all corporations.

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason you don't see the point is that you view Google as an IT company.

[Steve Channell]

Shame they had to wait for Huawei to do it first

A year ago it was tech-porn, now it is developing into something that can really help the world - hopefull CCTV face recognition was not the use-case that tipped them into be open.

google_ai_chips_trounce_intel_nvidia

[Adrian 4]

But

but, Motorola had a TPU 20 years ago !

http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1996/9612/9612f/9612f.htm