So the question is, what constitutes the 'Aorta' of the heart? Ali passed a clear signal to the market through two consecutive heavy messages - that is, the chip!
Following on April 18th, Alibaba.com announced that it was developing a neural network chip for the field of AI reasoning calculations such as image video analysis and machine learning, Ali-NPU. On April 20, Ali announced the acquisition of a chip company in Hangzhou. Tianwei System Co., Ltd.
This incident came at a time when the U.S. Department of Commerce’s ban on ZTE led to a public discussion on the 'core-lessness' of the entire people, thus pushing the issue of 'BAT core-making' onto the cusp of public opinion.
The logic behind Ali's 'core'
Regarding Ali’s efforts to make the core, some people encouraged it. Someone mocked it. Some looked at it. Someone smirked it. However, regardless of the attitude of the melons, Ali himself must and must lay down the chip’s “hard bones”. And as early as many years ago, there have been some actions. Is there any strong logic behind this? Listen to me one by one.
Implementing localization of hardware to software in cloud computing services
For Ali, the main source of its revenue is the core business - e-commerce business. Alibaba's Q4 quarterly report shows that e-commerce business accounted for 88% of its overall revenue. And each occurrence in Tmall, Taobao platform On-line transactions require the backing of cloud services. Together with the independent cloud computing business, which accounts for nearly 4% of the total, 'Aliyun' has built the 'basestone' of Ali's business empire.
How can such an important task be completely passed to other countries? The ZTE Incident is a loud alarm. If the core technology cannot be held by oneself, the key moment will be covered by the throat, and even bring about the destruction of the top. Disaster. Even if Ali abide by the law and abide by the morality of international trade, but if the conflict between China and the United States continues to expand, which can not ignore the truth of the fish?
Previously, Alibaba Cloud had already implemented IOEs at the system level—IBM, Oracel and EMC. The systems such as database storage are no longer dependent on foreign giants. In the past, the domestic software industry, especially the financial industry, basically relied on IOE, and now Baidu Finance, etc. Players are already aware of the importance of going to IOE and are actively making localization or open source at the software level.
However, this is far from enough. After the IOE is completed at the software level, localization of the hardware level becomes a must, while the hardware level needs to be localized. The core is naturally the chip. Ali is likely to use its cloud computing in the future. The server chip of the server room is gradually replaced by a self-developed chip. Its ultimate goal is to achieve full localization from hardware to software in the cloud computing business.
If the above goals can be achieved, the integration of software and hardware pursued by Alibaba Cloud will also be idealized, resulting in more stable services, more controllable costs, and best efficiency.
Build cloud-integrated capabilities under IoT services
If the cloud computing represents Ali's present, then the Internet of Things will show Ali's future.
At the 2018 Yunxi-Shenzhen Summit, Alibaba's senior vice president and Aliyun president Hu Xiaoming announced that Ali will formally enter IoT. Hu Xiaoming stated that IoT is a new owner of Alibaba Group's relay supplier, financial, logistics and cloud computing. Track.
Ali, who started as an e-commerce company, is naturally interested in the data. Ma once said: The biggest energy source in the future is not oil, but big data. Where does massive data come from? The Internet age, digitization of human activities, For example, e-commerce, social networking, culture and entertainment, etc., have spawned explosive growth of data. In the era of Internet of Things, the entire physical world will be digitized. Roads, cars, forests, rivers, factories, and even a trash can be abstracted. To the digital world, connected to the network, to achieve 'objects' exchanges, 'people' interaction, the resulting data will be more immeasurable. The chip is the basis for the realization of IoT device control, connection and calculation.
Ali has been committed to building cloud-integrated capabilities to deliver integrated solutions from the cloud to the end to all vertical industries. Therefore, the layout chip has very important significance for Ali to develop the Internet of Things business. Required options.
In fact, as early as 2015, Ali had already conducted in-depth cooperation with Zhongtian Micro to develop the cloud on chip (Yun on Chip) architecture for various segments of the Internet of Things, and developed a new generation of CPU, SoC platform, and software under the framework of cloud-based integration. Supporting the environment and operating system, supporting full-link security from the chip to the cloud, and low-cost access. In January 2016, Ali became a shareholder of Zhongtian Microsystems. In June 2017, Ali turned to Zhongtian. Microsystems injected 500 million yuan, formally entered the field of chip infrastructure design.
As the first member of Aiyun Cloud's IoT Partner Program, Zhongtian Microsystems has also promoted the large-scale application of IoT chips through Alibaba Cloud's link market in the chip field. Zhongtian Microsystems has released a framework based on AliOS software and hardware. Cloud chips, including computer vision chips, integrated access security MCU platform chips, and ZTE Microelectronics launched the world's first low-power NB-IoT IoT security chip based on AliOS.
Enabling all walks of life with artificial intelligence
After collecting large amounts of data through the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence is needed to further analyze the data before it can truly generate value. Enabling the industry. Data analysis must rely on powerful computing power. The chip is the core of computing power.
We know that there is a big difference between chips dedicated to artificial intelligence and traditional computing chips. The architecture of a typical CPU requires a lot of space to place storage units and control units. In contrast, computing units only occupy a small amount. In part, computational power cannot meet the computational needs of deep neural networks (DNNs), so there is an urgent need for dedicated architecture chips in the AI computing field.
Ali-NPU's Ali-NPU is mainly used to solve AI reasoning and computing problems in commercial scenarios such as image, video recognition, and cloud computing, which can improve computing efficiency and reduce costs. Its performance will be mainstream CPUs and GPUs currently available in the market. Architecture AI chip 10 times, while manufacturing costs and power consumption is only half, cost-effective than similar products 40 times. In the future, Ali-NPU capabilities can not only better meet the video, image processing needs, but also through Ali cloud To calculate the output of the ability to empower all walks of life.
In addition to self-developed AI chips, Ali has also invested in five AI chip companies including Cambrian, Barefoot Networks, Shen Jian, Kneron and ASR. Their product application scenarios focus on each other. : For example, in the Cambrian era, the focus is on the mobile phone business. The deeper focus is on the security sector, and Kneron focuses on smart homes and smart security.
Alibaba's advantages
When Ali's 'core' message just broke out, many people in the industry vowed that Ali was a 'local tyrant' and 'upstart' who would only save money and did not understand the chip at all.
As everyone knows, for the 'core' this extremely costly and time-consuming complex project, money is the biggest advantage. Huawei will invest more than 10% of its sales revenue in research and development each year, and the results achieved are of global concern. When Ali announced that he would invest more than 100 billion yuan in the Dharma hospital, the future reaction will also be worth looking forward to. Moreover, the abundant funds will further attract more outstanding talents and contribute to the 'core building' project.
More precious than funds is that Alibaba's various platforms generate a large amount of user data every day. These data are used to train the most fertile 'nutrients' of AI algorithm models. Ali-NPU's own research and development of Ali-NPU is based on Alibaba's machine intelligence technology. The laboratory and other teams have accumulated a large number of algorithm model advantages in the AI field, designed the microstructure and instruction set according to the AI algorithm model, and realized the maximum amount of AI model algorithm operation at the minimum cost.
In addition, Ali's understanding of the business scene will be more profound than that of the chip company, and the definition of the product will be more accurate.
Dr. Qi Xiaoning, CEO of Zhongtian Microsystems Co., Ltd. said: 'The CPU is divided into several types. The main CPU of the server and the PC is the CPU of Intel. The CPU of the mobile phone is the CPU of ARM. The next is the embedded CPU. Because of its fragmentation market, Therefore, we have a variety of CPUs. We aim at this market to build products. Our products are mainly used in smart cities, smart homes, multimedia, etc. There are currently 700 million chips shipped. Cooperation with Alibaba It is very important that we can connect the clouds to create an ecosystem, and we can also combine software and hardware to create a new ecology.
'Zhongtian Micro has always insisted on the road of independent innovation to develop CPU. After joining Alibaba, we will combine with Alibaba's powerful technology platform and ecology to promote the commercialization of Chinese chips as soon as possible, and at the same time use this CPU to various Internet of Things scenarios. '
Ali is undergoing tremendous changes - it has transformed from the world's largest e-commerce platform into a commercial infrastructure platform integrating retail, financial, technology, and internet of things services; slowly moving from a pure software company to hardware and software. Integrated "all-rounder" development. In the future, the chip will become the driving force behind Mercedes-Benz's "troika" Mercedes-Benz.