Chip giant Intel has announced a programme designed to help developers bring devices with artificial intelligence capabilities – powered by the company’s Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing unit (VPU), naturally – to market more quickly and easily.

“Intel AI: In Production means we can expect many more innovative AI-centric products coming to market from the diverse and growing segment of technologies utilising Intel technology for low-power inference at the edge,” claims Intel’s Remi El-Ouazzane of the programme, which sees the company partnering with embedded computing specialist AAEON on a mini-PCI Express module dubbed the ‘AI Core’ and powered by the Movidius Myriad 2 VPU found in Intel’s previous Neural Compute Stick USB accelerator.

“Intel Movidius Myriad 2 technology makes AI Core one of the most powerful and versatile AI hardware accelerators for edge computing,” adds AAEON’s Fabrizio Del Maffeo. “AI Core bridges the gap between the lab and volume production, allowing the innovators who adopted the Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick to roll out a field deployment.”

The Movidius VPU was the subject of a one-day OSHUG and BCS OSSG workshop earlier this month, and has already launched in commercial products including the Ryze Tello micro-drone. More information on Intel’s AI: In Production programme is available on the official website.