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Zhouyi AIPU SDK

The "Zhouyi" AIPU is an innovative AI processor specifically designed for deep learning by Arm China. It features a unique architecture, providing a complete hardware and software ecosystem with optimal PPA balance. Arm China also offers a range of tools for "Zhouyi" AIPU customers to assist with development, including simulators, compilers, and debuggers for data collection and analysis.

The "Zhouyi" AIPU supports mainstream AI frameworks such as TensorFlow and ONNX and will extend to support more frameworks in the future.

The "Zhouyi" Z2 AIPU is primarily designed for mid-to-high-end applications, including security, smart cockpits, ADAS, and edge servers.

Zhouyi AIPU SDK Installation Guide​

tip

The Zhouyi AIPU SDK must be installed on an X86 platform computer.

The Zhouyi SDK is a full-stack platform designed to provide users with rapid development and deployment capabilities. Its overall architecture is shown below:
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Preparing the Installation Environment​

The Zhouyi SDK requires a clean Python 3.8 environment. Before proceeding, ensure you have Python 3.8 set up.

  • (Optional) Install Anaconda

    If Python 3.8 (the required version) is not installed, or multiple versions of Python are present, it is recommended to use Anaconda to create a new Python 3.8 environment.

    • Install Anaconda

      Open a terminal window and run the following command to check if Anaconda is installed. If installed, skip these steps.

      $ conda --version
      conda 23.10.0

      If you see conda: command not found, it indicates Anaconda is not installed. Please refer to the Anaconda website for installation instructions.

    • Create a Conda Environment

      conda create -n aipu python=3.8

    • Activate the aipu Conda Environment

      conda activate aipu

    • Exit the Environment

      conda deactivate

Download the SDK Installation Package​

Download the Zhouyi_Z2.tar.gz installation package from Radxa's download site and extract it:

tar -xvf Zhouyi_Z2.tar.gz
cd Zhouyi_Z2 && bash +x SETUP.SH

After installation, the complete SDK directory will include the following:

  • AI610-SDK-r1p3-AIoT: ARM Zhouyi Z2 toolkit.
  • siengine: Example demos provided by siengine for ARM Zhouyi Z2 model compilation (nn-compiler-user-case-example) and board deployment (nn-runtime-user-case-example).

Configure the nn-compiler Environment​

  • Install Dependencies

    cd AI610-SDK-r1p3-AIoT/AI610-SDK-r1p3-00eac0/Out-Of-Box/out-of-box-nn-compiler
    pip3 install -r lib_dependency.txt
    tip

    Since this SDK does not include simulation features, errors during the installation of AIPUSimProfiler can be ignored.

  • Start the nn-compiler Environment

    For users of venv, remove the --user option in the pip3 install section of env_setup.sh.

    source env_setup.sh

SDK Documentation References​

  1. Zhouyi Compass Software Technical Overview
  2. Zhouyi Compass Getting Started Guide
  3. Zhouyi Compass Driver Runtime User Guide
  4. Zhouyi Compass NN Compiler User Guide
  5. Zhouyi Compass C Programming Guide
  6. Zhouyi Compass Debugger User Guide
  7. Zhouyi Compass IR Definition Application Note
  8. Zhouyi Compass Operators Specification Application Note
  9. Zhouyi CompassStudio User Guide (Chinese)