Intel introduced the Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 on Nov. 14, 2018, at Intel AI Devcon in Beijing.

Based on the Intel Movidius Myriad X vision processing unit (VPU) and supported by the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit, the Intel NCS 2 affordably speeds the development of deep neural networks inference applications while delivering a performance boost over the previous generation neural compute stick. The Intel NCS 2 enables deep neural network testing, tuning and prototyping, so developers can go from prototyping into production leveraging a range of Intel vision accelerator form factors in real-world applications.

What looks like a standard USB thumb drive hides much more inside. The Intel NCS 2 is powered by the latest generation of Intel VPU – the Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU (16 processing cores). This is the first to feature a neural compute engine – a dedicated hardware neural network inference accelerator delivering additional performance. Combined with the Intel Distribution of the OpenVINO toolkit supporting more networks, the Intel NCS 2 offers developers greater prototyping flexibility. Additionally, thanks to the Intel AI: In Production ecosystem, developers can now port their Intel NCS 2 prototypes to other form factors and productize their designs.

With a laptop and the Intel NCS 2, developers can have their AI and computer vision applications up and running in minutes. The Intel NCS 2 runs on a standard USB 3.0 port and requires no additional hardware.

At Intel AI DevCon Beijing, Intel also provided updates on its AI portfolio of technologies.

Intel showcased Cascade Lake, a future Intel Xeon Scalable processor that will introduce Intel Optane DC persistent memory and a set of new AI features called Intel DL Boost. This embedded AI accelerator is expected to speed deep learning inference workloads, with enhanced image recognition compared with current Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Cascade Lake is targeted to ship this year and ramp in 2019.

Intel’s Vision Accelerator Design Products targeted at AI inference and analytics performance on edge devices come in two forms: one that features an array of Intel Movidius VPUs and one built on the high-performance Intel Arria 10 FPGA. The accelerator solutions build on the OpenVINO toolkit that provides developers with improved neural network performance on a variety of Intel products and helps them further unlock real-time image analysis and intelligence within their IoT devices.

Spring Crest is the Intel Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP) that will be available in the market in 2019. The Intel Nervana NNP family leverages compute characteristics specific for AI deep learning, such as dense matrix multiplies and custom interconnects for parallelism.

Technical Specifications Intel Ncs 2

• Processor: Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing Unit (VPU)
• Supported frameworks: TensorFlow and Caffe
• Connectivity: USB 3.0 Type-A
• Dimensions: 2.85 in. x 1.06 in. x 0.55 in. (72.5 mm x 27 mm x 14 mm)
• Operating temperature: 0° C to 40° C
• Compatible operating systems: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS (64 bit), CentOS 7.4 (64 bit), and Windows 10 (64 bit)
• Minimum system requirements:
• x86_64 computer running Ubuntu 16.04 or Raspberry Pi 3 Model B running Stretch desktop or Ubuntu 16.04 virtual box instance
• USB 2.0 Type-A port (USB 3.0 recommended)
• 1 GB RAM
• 4 GB free storage space