There’s one big challenge in AI: how to manage the vast quantities of data that make such feats possible without making the devices too slow or draining the battery in minutes and wrecking the user experience.
Microsoft Corp. says it has the answer with a chip design for its HoloLens goggles—an extra AI processor that analyzes what the user sees and hears right there on the device rather than wasting precious microseconds sending the data back to the cloud. The new processor, a version of the company’s existing Holographic Processing Unit, was unveiled at an event in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sunday. The chip is under development and will be included in the next version of HoloLens; the company didn’t provide a date.
For years, the central processing units built by Intel Corp. and others have provided enough oomph and smarts to power the world’s gadgets and servers. But the rapid development of artificial intelligence has left some traditional chip makers facing real competition for the first time in over a decade.
