MediaTek Adds New Genio 520, 720 Chips to Its AIoT Lineup, Boosts NPU Performance to 10 TOPS
Company claims its new parts are ideal for running lightweight generative artificial intelligence models on-device.
MediaTek has announced new entries in the Genio edge artificial intelligence (edge AI) Internet of Things (IoT) chip family, the Genio 720 and Genio 520 — both offering up to 10 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of minimum-precision compute from integrated eight-generation in-house neural coprocessors.
"The Genio 720 and Genio 520 will unleash a new era of IoT innovation with powerful yet efficient generative AI capabilities on-device, offering a seamless user experience that also ensures data privacy," claims MediaTek's said CK Wang of the new parts. "With our integration of NVIDIA TAO and widely-adopted AI models for edge AI applications, developers can scale their designs across different products and form factors, from smart retail displays to sophisticated industrial HMI [Human Machine Interface] applications."
MediaTek launched the Genio family, targeting the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), back in 2022 with the Genio 1200 — following it up with the Genio 700 in January the next year. The original range-topping Genio 1200 part came with an eight-core processor comprised of four Arm Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores, an Arm Mali-G57 MC5 graphics processor, and a dual-core neural coprocessor delivering a claimed 4.8 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of minimum-precision compute for on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads.
The Genio 720 and 520, brought to our attention by CNX Software, are designed as more powerful successors to the Genio 700 and 500 respectively — featuring a dual Cortex-A78 and six Cortex-A55 core cluster, running at speeds up to 2.6GHz depending on model and temperature rating, and an Arm Mali-G57 MC2 graphics processor, but swapping out the neural coprocessor for an eight-generation part delivering a claimed 10 TOPS of performance. The Genio 720 also sees an upgrade to a dual image signal processor (ISP), hitting 30 frames per second for single 32 megapixel image sensor or 30 FPS each for two 16 megapixel sensors while supporting up to six Full HD (1080p) inputs.
MediaTek has yet to announce pricing and availability for the new parts, but says that it expects to begin sampling chips to customers some time in the second quarter of the year. More information on the Genio lineup is available on the MediaTek website. At the time of writing, no Genio 1220 model with similarly-boosted NPU had yet been announced.
