The 2024 Advantech Embedded Industry Partner Conference was successfully held at the Crowne Plaza Beijing Zhongguancun, with more than 300 guests attending the conference. The conference was themed "AI ignites edge computing changes and shapes the new future of the embedded industry". Globally renowned semiconductor and software manufacturers such as Intel, Qualcomm, Rockchip, Microsoft, and Hailo shared the embedded technology changes and innovations brought by AI. At the same time, the conference also invited many industry partners such as machine vision, medical care, and intelligent driving to share the latest AI application cases and practices with Advantech to explore new business opportunities in the embedded industry in the AI era.
When AI meets edge computing, a change is quietly happening. This change will not only promote the upgrading and transformation of traditional industries, but also breed new business models and market opportunities. Mr. Xu Jiehong, general manager of Advantech (China) Embedded Internet of Things Platform Business Group, said in his opening speech at the conference: With the rapid development of AIoT technology, edge intelligence platforms are becoming an important force in promoting the application of emerging industries. Advantech relies on its deep accumulation in the field of industrial Internet of Things, focuses on the innovation of embedded software and hardware, and combines its own advantages in Edge Computing to continuously make efforts to launch innovative Edge AI platforms, providing strong support for emerging market applications.
"AI is changing the world. It can help us make more accurate decisions, operate more effectively, and provide new value services. So when and how to start will be the problems faced by enterprises," said Su Gaoyuan, deputy general manager of Advantech (Global) Embedded Internet of Things Platform Business Group in his speech.
Edge AI Inference also faces many challenges in the process of implementation, such as: the complexity of AI models, AI computing performance, overall power consumption, operation security, deployment costs, etc. In order to accelerate the process of AI in embedded applications, Advantech is actively building an Edge AI symbiotic system of "diversity, openness and standardization". With more than 40 years of embedded market service experience, Advantech fully understands the needs of embedded applications, and works closely with mainstream AI chip manufacturers to create a rich standard product service model. At the same time, it also provides Design in Service that integrates platform and application. At the meeting, Mr. Su also shared Advantech’s latest Edge AI Computing solution, which fully integrates Edge AI boards to systems, and from AI accelerator cards to Edge AI design services to help industry users quickly deploy AI development and applications.
In order to effectively expand AI applications to meet diverse market demands, Advantech has cooperated with many mainstream chip manufacturers to actively and rapidly deploy edge AI based on CPU, VPU or GPU technologies with different architectures, and provide multi-dimensional AI solutions. Advantech, together with well-known manufacturers such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Rockchip, shared innovative cutting-edge technologies such as embedded and Edge AI at the conference. Intelligent transportation system is an important component of smart cities. It deeply integrates with transportation engineering through new technologies such as big data, the Internet, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, supercomputing, and Beidou satellite navigation system. At the conference, Dr. Lei Ming, a senior solution architect from Intel Corporation, shared the Intel® AI-enabled end-to-end intelligent transportation system solution, the Intel® Traffic Control Computer Architecture (TFCC) for transportation infrastructure, the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) for urban roads, and the free-flow ETC toll collection system on highways. He also shared the application examples of Advantech graphics card solutions based on Intel® discrete GPUs in multi-channel video analysis.
AI computing has entered an era of heterogeneous computing. Different industries will have different segmented application scenarios. Industrial applications are different from consumer applications, and security and long life cycle are particularly important. Li Junjie, product marketing director of Qualcomm, said at the meeting that Qualcomm has accumulated a lot of IoT experience in the past 30 years, and has very comprehensive solutions and technical services in chips, driver services, development frameworks, OS, etc. The strategic cooperation reached between Qualcomm and Advantech at this year's World Embedded Exhibition highly integrates the professional knowledge, high-performance computing and advanced communication technology of both parties in artificial intelligence, creates exclusive solutions for smart IoT applications, and jointly creates a new diversified and open ecological pattern of Edge AI.
The large model of full-scene automatic perception and multi-modal processing in the new era of AI has greatly expanded the perception ability of AI. As an important partner of Advantech in the Arm field, Rockchip shared the top ten application prospects of large models in the LLM industrial field with the audience on site, and plans to launch ultra-large computing chips that meet the large model scenario to provide better platform support and services for the development of Edge AI. The implementation of AI still faces many challenges. Advantech connects with partners in the entire AIoT ecosystem, not only providing users with diverse AI hardware solutions, but also focusing on software services. Advantech's own model edge adaptation kit includes a model conversion tool to provide specific model conversion support and optimize it to a certain extent, so that it can better utilize the resources on the SOC on the specified platform and achieve faster reasoning operations; the SDK software suite helps users experience the computing performance of multiple platforms through the same adaptation method, and is the best choice for customers to implement AI applications.
At the x86 Technology Innovation Session, we saw the wide application of Advantech's Edge AI industry solutions, which not only injected new momentum into industry customers, but also promoted the vigorous development of emerging industries. The launch of Advantech's high-performance edge computing platform not only redefined the next generation of applications, but also demonstrated its outstanding performance in processing complex computing tasks. Advantech's Edge AI edge intelligent machine solutions and applications, with their high efficiency and intelligence, have brought unprecedented convenience to all walks of life. In addition, Advantech's industrial-grade peripheral integrated services and localized products and embedded customized service solutions provide solid support for the implementation of industrial applications.
It is also worth mentioning that the conference site also set up RISC/Arm, Edge AI, emerging industry applications, Intel, AMD, localization, industrial peripherals and software systems and other 20+ new products and solutions display areas. The rich and diverse embedded platforms and design services reflect Advantech's deep strength and unique advantages in the field of edge intelligence. Looking to the future, facing the broad prospects and huge potential of AIoT and Edge Computing, as a company that has been deeply engaged in the industrial Internet of Things for more than 40 years, Advantech will continue to deepen its presence in various vertical markets with a spirit of continuous innovation and the concept of ecological cooperation, promote the widespread application of edge intelligent technology and industrial upgrading, and help accelerate the digitalization of the industry.
