According to the introduction of black sesame, this chip is “the auto-driving chip of the car-level international giant.” The chip has advantages in key performance indicators such as power, energy efficiency and power utilization. At the same time, the black sesame-based Tesla FSD based on the “Huashan No. 2” FAD solution and other related information was also disclosed at the press conference.
On August 29, 2019, Black Sesame Intelligent Technology held a press conference in Shanghai, officially releasing the Huashan series of chips for three years.
Participating in the conference staff photo
Differentiation is power, energy efficiency, and power utilization
According to Black Sesame, this chip has advantages in key performance indicators such as power, energy efficiency and power utilization. At the same time, the black sesame-based Tesla FSD based on the “Huashan No. 2” FAD solution and other related information was also disclosed at the press conference. It is reported that Huashan No. 2 single chip computing power can support L3, its multi-chip interconnected FAD board computing power of 160T, can support L4 automatic driving, and will continue to develop L5 chip series.
“Black Sesame” Smart Technology Founder and CEO Single Chapter
The black sesame founder and CEO single chapter introduces that the key to the AI-aware platform is sensing chip, and the AI acceleration solution is the biggest challenge facing the sensor chip< At the same time, car level is also a key threshold for autopilot chips. Car-level autopilot chips need to meet the following requirements: Durability,Reliability and functional safety, information security. And Black Sesame believes that high-level autopilot chips are the key to breaking autopilot. At present, L3 and above autopilot chips are monopolized by several foreign chip companies, and autopilot chips above L3 level can be mass-produced. Only Tesla, Black Sesame, sought to break the standard Tesla on the L3 level.
According to the introduction of black sesame, black sesame has mastered the core technology of high computing power, low power consumption, high computing power utilization and complete SOC design capability. The black sesame multi-chip interconnect FAD board has a computing power of up to 160T. In terms of energy efficiency ratio, compared to NVIDIA Xavier and Tesla’s 1TOPS/W, Mobileye EyeQ5’s 2.4TOPS/W, Black Sesame Intelligent Technology’s two chips have achieved 4TOPS/W and 6TOPS/W, respectively, far above the industry level.
The Black Sesame team developed the Huashan No.1 chip based on the sensing algorithm, core IP, chip system architecture, tool chain, operating system required for autonomous driving. The core of the black sesame chip is the UltraDL engine, which hopes to create a high-computing, high-performance, energy-efficient product that makes “big computing” more “smart”. Black sesame will improve engine energy efficiency from two angles:
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Develop a multi-purpose neural network architecture sharing, multi-function detection, and self-developed training process, and perform structural optimization and tailoring of neural networks under the premise of ensuring accuracy.
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Enhance the effective use of computing power: (1) 3D computing localization on the architecture to improve hardware utilization; (2) multi-layer fusion, sub-graph processing; (3) structured pruning, adaptable Quantify.
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Open the interface and flexibly expand the platform.
According to Black Sesame, the “Huashan Chip” pre-loaded chip is expected to be invested by the end of next year, The chip involved in car control is in 2021.
The future of autopilot chips
The automotive industry is at a critical moment of transformation and upgrading. Intelligentization is irreversible. The automotive electronic system architecture is evolving from a decentralized to a centrally integrated system. The automatic driving level is one step ahead, and the computing power needs to be significantly increased. Improvement, the traditional chip can not meet the current computing power demand, the revolutionary automotive chip has spawned the blue ocean market.
Black Sesame Smart Technology founder and CEO single chapter in the hairIntroduced in the conference: The automobile industry is changing soon, and the traditional car will definitely develop into autonomous driving. The Chinese autopilot chip market is the turning point, and its development has the background of “the right place and the right place”: the day refers to the “the eve of the AI outbreak”, and the wave of “automatic driving + artificial intelligence” has been To the utmost need to automate the production of chips; Geo is the promotion and localization support policy of the national policy, the state actively encourages enterprises to independently develop chip core technology;People and school Cooperation and production, education and research have promoted and strengthened talent cooperation.
The single chapter also states that the autopilot chip market has high technical and risk thresholds, and the technical architecture and expansion of the eco-chain also affect the entry of the track. The autopilot market is a mature market, but the difficulty in breaking the market is that the cycle of the car is long, and the cycle of chip production and production is also very long. The timing of chip design and entry makes the industry’s competitive first mover’s advantage extremely obvious. In addition, the technical architecture route problem also makes the operation and development of the industry extremely difficult.
Black sesame financing process, data from “Whale”
The founder of Black Sesame is a bachelor’s and master’s degree in microelectronics from Tsinghua University. He is a founding team member of image chip company OmniVision (OV). The leading automotive HDR is used in more than 90% of high-end cars in Europe. Rich experience in automotive software and chip development, with more than 100 patents in the field of visual perception. Co-founder and COO Liu Weihong is a master of Tsinghua University and an MBA of the University of Toronto. He was the president of the Asia-Pacific region of the Bosch Chassis Division, responsible for automotive sales and quality control. He has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive manufacturing and component R&D manufacturing industries. The company has more than 200 employees and has worked for OV, Ambarella, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, etc., with an average working time of more than 15 years. Black Sesame announced in April this year nearly 100 million US dollars B round of financing, by Junlian Capital’s professional semiconductor Fund Junhai Chuangxin led investment, SAIC, SK China, China Merchants Group’s China Merchants Venture Capital, Northern Light Venture Capital, Datang Capital, Wind and Capital and other investments.
According to the founder’s single chapter, the company is now close to the new round of financing, and the new round of financing will focus on the financing ecology and seek strategic investment that will help the listing.