MediaTek unveils i700 chipset for AR applications, smart homes, stores, factories

MediaTek unveiled a new chipset for AI IoT purposes - the i700 (a successor to the i500). It’s quite powerful, even by smartphone standards, so it will likely find its way in Smart Displays, high-end security cameras and other more demanding applications.

It features a dual-core NPU, which speeds up face detection five times compared to the i500. The chipset supports the Android Neural Networks API, as well as the most popular deep learning frameworks.

It can be attached to a single 32MP camera or a dual 24MP+16MP setup. In the latter configuration, it can make use of its built-in depth sensing engine and distance estimation. Pose estimation and motion tracking are available for fitness and AR applications. Running the camera at 120fps allows the chipset to track fast moving objects.

The MediaTek i700 can run Android. It has an octa-core processor with two Cortex-A75 cores and two Cortex-A55 ones at 2.2GHz and 2.0GHz, respectively. The GPU is a IMG PowerVR GM 9446 clocked at 970MHz. The chipset can be hooked up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM at 1866MHz.

For connectivity, the chip supports Wi-Fi 5 (2x2 802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0 for local connections. It also has a Cat. 12 LTE modem for mobile applications.

As we said, it’s pretty powerful – too powerful for a smart speaker. MediaTek sees applications in access control for smart buildings, facial recognition for payment authentication, fitness and entertainment devices and even some autonomous vehicles in factories and warehouses (something like the robots in Amazon’s warehouses).

The first devices with the i700 will come out in 2020.

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