https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
    • MSP 501 Information Center
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
    • MSP 501 Information Center
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Desktop


Shutterstock

Are You Ready

Microsoft Readies Era of NPU Devices with Hybrid Loop, Project Volterra

  • Written by Jeffrey Schwartz
  • May 24, 2022
Devices with neural processors will enable processing to shift from device to cloud.

MICROSOFT BUILD — Microsoft is creating deeper integration between Windows and its Azure cloud with the development of Hybrid Loop and Project Volterra. Revealed Tuesday at the Microsoft Build developer conference, the new technology will tap future client devices that have neural processing units (NPUs).

In the future, Microsoft anticipates most client devices will have NPUs, low-powered silicon that can perform AI inferencing and optimization. Microsoft has licensed Qualcomm’s new Neural Processing SDK for Windows, announced by Qualcomm on Tuesday.

Microsoft Hybrid Loop Concept

Hybrid Loop

NPUs will effectively load-balance the CPU and GPU on Windows devices with Azure compute services. That process would free up the CPU and GPU on a computing device for more compute-intensive processing.

Hybrid Loop is a cross-platform development pattern for building AI capabilities that tap edge and cloud resources, according to Microsoft. Developers can use it to run AI inferencing on local clients or using Azure compute services. Microsoft said it will enable this capability with the release of an Azure Execution Provider in its ONNX Runtime.

Project Volterra Microsoft

Microsoft’s Project Volterra

Project Volterra is a prototyping kit designed to enable developers to invoke Microsoft’s AI. The Arm-based kit, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, will enable simulation of applications on devices with NPUs. Microsoft said Project Volterra will let Windows developers build and debug native apps for Arm devices with their preferred tools.

The Apps

Among them are Visual Studio, Windows Terminal, WSL, VSCode, Microsoft Office and Teams. However, Microsoft said the final tooling supported is subject to change. Hybrid Loop and Project Volterra aims to enable new devices and apps that can tap the intelligence of the cloud.

Microsoft's Satya Nadella at Build 2022

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella at Build 2022

“If there’s one thing that I believe that will surpass the AI supercomputer, it’s the supercomputing capacity that will be distributed across all the devices we carry and use throughout our lives,” Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said during the opening keynote at Build, a virtual event this week.

Nadella added: “In this hybrid cloud-to-edge world, you will be able to do large-scale training in the cloud and do inference at the edge and have the fabric work as one. This pattern allows you to make late-binding runtime decisions on whether to run inference on Azure, or the local client. It can also dynamically shift the load between client and cloud.”

Power of NPUs

Hybrid Loop and the Project Volterra kits are possible thanks to the emergence of NPUs, said Kevin Gallo, corporate VP for Microsoft’s Windows developer platform. Gallo described NPUs as pieces of silicon designed to accelerate AI inferencing while consuming much less power than a CPU.

Microsoft's Kevin Gallo at Build 2022

Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo at Build 2022

“Because we will see NPUs being built into most – if not all – future computing devices, we’re going to make it easy for developers to leverage these new capabilities by baking support for NPUs into the end-to-end Windows platform,” Gallo said.

Microsoft plans to deliver Project Volterra to developers later this year.

Native Apps on Arm

Along those same lines, Microsoft is expanding its support for Windows running on Arm-based devices. Currently, existing apps on Arm-based devices running Windows run in emulation mode. Gallo acknowledged that users want native apps.

“Native apps deliver the fastest, most responsive liquid smooth UX, consume less memory storage and I/O and deliver great battery life,” Gallo said. To deliver that capability, Microsoft will offer an Arm-native toolchain with Visual Studio 2022. It will also run with VSCode, Visual C++, .NET 6 and Java, Windows Terminal, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) for running Linux and Android apps. Microsoft is aiming to release it before the end of this year.

Techanalysis's Bob O'Donnell

Techanalysis’s Bob O’Donnell

“Dynamically allocating resources has been a key part of cloud computing architectures since the early days, so it just makes sense to want to apply some of these principles to client computing devices,” wrote Bob O’ Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research. “One big challenge is that, up until now, applications haven’t been specifically written or optimized to run in these kinds of environments. Part of the Microsoft vision involves using cloud-native development practices to create these AI-powered, hybrid client/cloud apps.”

Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Jeffrey Schwartz or connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

Tags: MSPs VARs/SIs Artificial Intelligence Channel Chatter Cloud Desktop Mobility & Wireless New Products & Services Technologies

Most Recent


  • DartPoints' Jackie Steinberg
    Channel People on the Move: AT&T, HPE, Google Cloud, Comcast, More
    Plus, moves at TBI, Trend Micro, Microsoft, Sandler Partners, Nitel and more.
  • Cloud computing news
    Missed June’s Cloud News? AWS, VMware, HPE, Google Cloud Made Headlines
    In case you’ve been busy (or on much-needed summer break), we’ve collected the biggest news for cloud partners.
  • Cloud computing
    Public Cloud Momentum Pacing Past Forecasts, With AWS, Azure in Lead
    We assess the soaring numbers with the help of Gartner, IDC and Synergy Research.
  • Tape Measure
    How the Cloud Has Changed Measurement for Partners
    Customer success will become the driving metric for partner success in new cloud-centric environment.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • money
    'An Era Has Ended': Inside the $61 Billion Broadcom-VMware Deal Rocking the Software Industry
  • focus a camera
    Knowledge 2022: ServiceNow Focused on Partner Experience to Drive Growth
  • Technology
    New Technology Offerings for the Channel: AT&T, Datto, Microsoft, RingCentral
  • Michael Dell Dell Tech World 2022
    Despite Global Turmoil, Dell Claims Industry’s Most Efficient Supply Chain

Upcoming Events

View all

MSP Summit

September 13, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

May 1, 2023 - May 4, 2023

Galleries

View all

Channel People on the Move: AT&T, HPE, Google Cloud, Comcast, More

July 5, 2022

Missed June’s Cloud News? AWS, VMware, HPE, Google Cloud Made Headlines

July 5, 2022

Public Cloud Momentum Pacing Past Forecasts, With AWS, Azure in Lead

July 4, 2022

Industry Perspectives

View all

The Role of Mentors and Sponsors in Advancing Your Tech Career

July 5, 2022

How to Make Embracing Change Part of Your Company Culture

July 1, 2022

How to Differentiate to Leverage 5G’s Revenue Opportunity

June 28, 2022

Webinars

View all

VEP Platform for Delivery of uCPE, SD-WAN and SASE

June 29, 2022

The Digital Worker: How to Empower Customers with a Flexible, Scalable VDI Solution to Enable Remote Work

June 30, 2022

Growing Partner Revenue and Customer Satisfaction with Power Management Services

June 23, 2022

White Papers

View all

Work Goes Remote – (and Other Top ITOps Trends)

May 25, 2022

The New Bottom Line: How MSPs Can Meet the Healthcare Crisis While Evolving Their Businesses

April 19, 2022

How to build a Security Operations Center (on a budget)

April 4, 2022

Channel Futures TV

View all

Vonage a ‘Single Communications Stack Provider’ for Partners, Customers

IBM, Partners and the $1 Trillion Hybrid Cloud Opportunity

June 26, 2022

Agents Share ‘Secrets,’ Industry Opportunity

May 11, 2022

AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco, ThreatLocker on Unlocking Partner Potential

May 6, 2022

Twitter

ChannelFutures

Distributor @Infinigate to acquire @nuviasgroup to create "pan-European #cybersecurity powerhouse."… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 5, 2022
ChannelFutures

[email protected], @AWSCloud, @VMware, @Azure, @HPE, more, all made big waves in June with respective #cloud news.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 5, 2022
ChannelFutures

Happy Independence Day 🎇 to our U.S. colleagues, from the #ChannelFutures and #ChannelPartners team to yours! We ho… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 4, 2022
ChannelFutures

#Publiccloud demand is going nowhere. We dive into stats. @AWSCloud @Azure @IDC @Gartner_inc @SRG_Research #cloud… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 4, 2022
ChannelFutures

Partners can bring more value to #customerrelationships with the #customerexperience, says @SAPPartners4U.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 4, 2022
ChannelFutures

Channel people making waves this week include: @jpdepa3rd, @RiyaShanmugam, @sandyhogan dlvr.it/STCM6S https://t.co/oVB86ztTtP

July 1, 2022
ChannelFutures

#Cybersecurity experts say July 4th weekend ripe for #ransomware, other attacks. @blumirasec @Netenrich @Vectra_AI… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 1, 2022
ChannelFutures

New @PureStorage #ITchannel leader details jump from Veritas. dlvr.it/STBsLB https://t.co/BFSmZ5ubff

July 1, 2022

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X