Microsoft wants to integrate AI processors in more devices

Microsoft is working on processors that are optimized for artificial intelligence and that will be used for other devices than just the HoloLens. The company considers the development of software at the same time as hardware, including chips, important and continues to invest in this.

When asked by CNBC about developing AI processors for the HoloLens, Panos Panay, of Microsoft’s Devices division, said that as part of its Devices division, the company has a Silicon Group charged with developing of chips. “When you make software, you have to make it together with hardware. We call that writing to the steel,” says Panay. “To be able to make silicon and distribute it through products, bringing the right experience to customers through software, that’s very important. We’ll continue to invest in that,” he says.

To the follow-up question of whether the chips are coming to more devices, Panay answers with a resounding yes: “We must continue to find the pieces of silicon, the chipsets, to bring sensors to life, to connect people to each other and to their products.” Microsoft does this development partly in-house and partly with partners. The company licenses its chip technologies to partners, with Panay citing the asic in the pen of the Surface Pro as an example.

Microsoft announced last summer that it was developing the Holographic Processing Unit 2.0. Microsoft is developing this chip for real-time processing of all data from the HoloLens sensors. Part of the processor is an AI chip optimized for the implementation of deep neural networks to recognize objects.