OPPO does not want to be just another mobile device brand and in INNO DAY 2021 that this week was held in Shenzhen, it is showing why. Under the slogan “Reimaging the Future”, the CEO of the Asian multinational, Tony Chen, has shown what technologies is the company preparing for the terminals that we will see in 2022 and beyond.
Among these stands out his first NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for image processing: MariSilicon X. Built on 6nm processing technology, MariSilicon X combines an NPU and ISP with a multi-level memory architecture with which the brand wants to combine the best performance with good energy efficiency.
In this sense, OPPO ensures that MariSilicon X allows capture 4K AI night video in RAW mode using full image data for the first time on an Android smartphone. The new imaging NPU will make its debut on the Find X series in Q1 2022, becoming one of the most advanced imaging NPUs used in a smartphone to date.
The OPPO INNO DAY 2021 has also been the official announcement of the launch of OPPO Air Glass. This AR (Assisted Reality) device features a monocular waveguide design inspired by the wings of a cicada, offering a lightweight and minimalist appearance. It offers interesting practical functions such as navigation, checking our health data, teleprompter or immediate voice-to-text translation, without having to carry a large and heavy device with us.
OPPO Air Glass is equipped with a self-developed compact projection system from OPPO, the Spark Micro Projector, and a bespoke optical diffraction waveguide, enabling vivid, clear and sharp AR screen viewing in all kinds of environments.
The device can be used with both a smartphone and an OPPO smartwatch, and also supports different options for intuitive interactions such as touch, voice or even movement controls, making it possible for users to obtain the information they want quickly and comfortable.
OPPO Air Glass
MariSilicon X: a 6nm imaging NPU
As the company has explained, in the development of Marisilicon X it combines the best of both worlds: speed and high efficiency. For this, the MariSilicon X NPU offers 18 trillion operations per second (TOPS) and an energy efficiency of 11.6 TOPS per watt, so we can access applications that demand high performance in loads such as AI, without the battery suffering.
The NPU also features an innovative dedicated Tera bps memory subsystem, allowing MariSilicon X to make full use of the NPU’s computing power at all times, without being restricted by memory, significantly reducing the time required to copy data between storage and processing units.
MariSilicon X also includes dedicated DDR with additional bandwidth of up to 8.5 GB / s. Its multi-tier memory architecture greatly minimizes delays and reduces power consumption caused by unnecessary repeated read and write cycles. Likewise, by running OPPO’s AI Noise Reduction Algorithm, the brand ensures that MariSilicon X can achieve performance up to 20 times faster Compared to the OPPO Find X3 Pro.
The most interesting thing however is that MariSilicon X is capable of processing RAW images and videos in real time. Thanks to its powerful computing power, it is capable of directly real-time 4K AI processing and 20-bit HDR fusion in the RAW format at the pixel level. By processing the original image data, MariSilicon X can achieve an 8 dB signal-to-noise ratio in images, which the company says “opens up a new world for computational photography.”
