LeapFive Technology was invited to participate in the
“5th Electric Power Information and Communication Technology Conference (EPICT)”
On August 17th-19th, 2022, the “5th Electric Power Information and Communication Technology Conference” was held in Guangzhou, China. The theme of this conference is “Innovative Integration of Digital Technology, Helping the Construction of New Power System”, focusing on the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.” The conference attracted representatives from the power industry information and communication, network security and other units and related research institutions, experts and scholars and technical experts from the State Grid, Southern Power Grid, State Power Investment, Three Gorges Group and other well-known enterprises in the industry to discuss the new trends, new concepts, new technologies and application practices of the integration of digital technology and power business applications, and explore the way to build new power systems. In addition, this conference also set up six thematic forums on power innovation, intelligent perception and IoT, power blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, communication and intelligent regulation, and new power system network security.
LeapFive Technology was invited to attend this conference and delivered a keynote speech at the “Power AI Technology Innovation Application Forum.”
Dr. Aglaia Kong delivered a keynote speech on “LeapFive Technology’s NB2 Helps Power Edge Intelligent Application”
“Currently, NB2 is the first Full Mask RISC-V architecture high-end application SoC, using an advanced 12nm process. Also, it is the first mass-produced RISC-V-based industrial-grade SoC chip.”
Dr. Aglaia Kong mentioned that in the context of global energy changes, opportunities and challenges coexist. The clean energy revolution is an important challenge for us: first, people cannot control weather changes. Second, peak shaving and valley filling. Third, carbon certification/metering/trading. In response to the above problems, “Energy Internet”, as a constructable software and hardware infrastructure such as sensing, control, and application, connects hundreds of millions of devices, machines, and systems such as energy production, energy transmission, and energy consumption will be an important opportunity. In this regard, LeapFive Technology launched the industrial-grade SoC chip NB2 in a timely manner, which will strongly promote the “IoT core ecology” of smart energy.
According to Dr. Aglaia Kong, NB2 is a high-performance SoC positioned on the edge side. It adopts quad-core RISC-V architecture, with a main frequency of 1.8GHz, external memory supports DDR4/LPDDR4(x), and a bandwidth of up to 4266MT/ s, built-in GPU, NPU, audio and video DSP and other hardware acceleration engines, and adopts 12nm advanced technology, focusing on energy efficiency balance between low power consumption and high-speed data processing, hoping to build an autonomous and controllable power edge intelligent application scenario based on this application platform.
In terms of power applications, Dr. Aglaia Kong introduced the application of NB2 in edge intelligent perception, inspection drones, and power transmission detection gateways. In edge intelligent perception, NB2 will be used in system application cloud services, inspection drones, power transmission gateways, etc.
Based on the NB2 chip, the transmission line inspection drone is developed and connected to the inspection image intelligent recognition cloud platform. In this way, an intelligent identification algorithm for defects such as towers, conductors, and hardware can be realized. Change the way of interpreting inspection defects, improve the accuracy and intelligence of inspection images, and improve inspection efficiency. Take advantage of the low power consumption of the chip to increase the endurance of the drone.
The NB2 chip is deployed in the transmission monitoring gateway of the complex section of the transmission line and supports monitoring services such as wire carrying capacity calculation and dynamic capacity expansion, micro-meteorological monitoring, tower attitude, video image front-end (wildfire, icing, foreign object intrusion), etc. At present, the general solution is to basically use a single dedicated device for each monitoring service. By adding the NB2 chip, the new generation solution designed adopts a normalized design, supports a variety of edge computing functions, is compatible with north-south heterogeneous access, and has ultra-low power consumption, which greatly reduces maintenance costs.
In addition, according to Dr. Aglaia Kong, NB2 has done a lot of work in enhancing security features, such as using the chip as a unique identifier to enable the device to securely access the network, encrypting data to make channel transmission secure, and enabling secure boot to prevent firmware tampering. Moreover, with PMP enhancements, data confidentiality and integrity are ensured. In addition to the above-mentioned measures to enhance security features, NB2 is equipped with blockchain features, including blockchain basic features, blockchain clients, and blockchain light nodes, etc., to solve the problem of data authentication, traceability, stakeholder data mutual trust and other issues.
Dr. Aglaia Kong believes that in the future, NB2 can be used in virtual power plants (VPP). By carrying NB2, information can be uploaded credibly, and through the ABC platform independently developed by LeapFive Technology, it enables carbon emissions trading and virtual power plants.
Finally, Dr. Aglaia Kong hopes to solve the challenges in the global energy change through the industrial-grade custom chip solutions of LeapFive Technology’s independent and controllable architecture and the self-developed product technology system “three horizontal, one vertical and one platform.” As well as promote the transformation of semiconductor-driven energy systems, use chips to innovate the direction, and empower intelligent applications at the edge of power.