Canonical, Renesas Partner to Bring Ubuntu Core to RZ Processors for the IoT and Edge AI
Partnership sees Canonical launching a customized Ubuntu Core disk image for devices based on Renesas' RZ processor family.
Ubuntu Linux creator Canonical has announced a partnership with Renesas that will see the companies work hand-in-hand on edge artificial intelligence (edge AI) and on-device machine learning (ML) applications — starting with a custom Ubuntu Linux image for Renesas' RZ processor family.
"Canonical is excited to partner with Renesas to push the boundaries of what is possible at the edge," claims Cindy Goldberg, Canonical's vice-president for silicon alliances, of the deal between the two companies. "Together, we will provide organizations with the tools they need to reduce time to market for IoT [Internet of Things] and edge devices that are compliant and future-proof."
"Renesas' RZ family is designed to enable developers to unlock the full potential of AI at the edge, combining efficiency and scalability for a wide range of applications," adds Renesas' Mohammed Dogar, vice president of the company's embedded processing business acceleration division. "By combining our hardware expertise with Canonical's software capabilities, we are well-positioned to deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the demands of AI applications."
The partnership will see Canonical launch a disk image of its Ubuntu Linux operating system tailored specifically to Renesas' RZ family of 32- and 64-bit processors, which includes functionality for the Internet of Things and edge AI workloads — tying into instructions and hardware features of the chips to boost machine learning and computer vision performance. The OS, based on Canonical's containerized Ubuntu Core distribution, will also include security features that tie into RZ-family hardware features, the company has confirmed.
Neither Canonical nor Renesas have stated when the custom OS image will be available to download, nor which chips in the RZ family it will support.