A Milliwatt Of DOOM

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The seminal 1993 first-person shooter from id Software, DOOM, has become well-known as a test of small computer platforms. Weā€™ve seen it on embedded systems far and wide, but we doubt weā€™ve ever seen it consume as little power as it does on a specialized neural network processor. The chip in question is a Syntiant NDP200, and itā€™s designed to be the always-on component listening for the wake word or other trigger in an AI-enabled IoT device.

DOOM running on as little as a milliwatt of power makes for an impressive PR stunt at a trade show, but perhaps more interesting is that the chip isnā€™t simply running the game, itā€™s also playing it. As a neural network processor it contains the required smarts to learn how to play the game, and in the simple circular level itā€™s soon picking off the targets with ease.

Weā€™ve not seen any projects using these chips as yet, which is hardly surprising given their niche marketplace. It is however worth noting that there is a development board for the lower-range sibling chip NDP101, which sells for around $35 USD. Super-low-power AI is within reach.



from Blog ā€“ Hackaday https://ift.tt/OeWFbDv

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