The rise of parallel computing: Why GPUs will eclipse NPUs for edge AI
By Dennis Laudick, Vice President of Product Management, Imagination Technologies
eeNews Europe | May 30, 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just a technological breakthrough — it’s a permanent evolution in how software is written, understood, and executed. Traditional software development, built on deterministic logic and largely sequential processing, is giving way to a new paradigm: probabilistic models, trained behaviours, and data-driven computation. This isn’t a fleeting trend. AI represents a fundamental and irreversible shift in computer science — from rule-based programming to adaptive, learning-based systems that are increasingly integrated into a wider range of computing problems and capabilities.
This transformation demands a corresponding change in the hardware that powers it. The old model of building highly specialised chips for narrowly defined tasks no longer scales in a world where AI architectures and algorithms are in constant flux (as they are and forever will be). To meet the evolving needs of AI — especially at the edge — we need compute platforms that are as dynamic and adaptable as the workloads they run.
That’s why general-purpose parallel processors, GPUs, are emerging as the future of edge AI, displacing specialised processors like Neural Processing Units (NPUs). It’s not just a question of performance — it’s about flexibility, scalability, and alignment with the future of software itself.
To read the full article, click here
Related Semiconductor IP
- E-Series GPU IP
- Arm's most performance and efficient GPU till date, offering unparalled mobile gaming and ML performance
- 3D OpenGL ES 1.1 GPU IP core
- 2.5D GPU
- 2D GPU Hardware IP Core
Related News
- ESWIN Computing Pairs SiFive CPU, Imagination GPU and In House NPU in Latest RISC-V Edge Computing SoC
- Elliptic Labs’ AI Platform Now Optimized for Ceva’s NeuPro-Nano NPU – Enabling Smarter Edge Devices
- Ceva and embedUR systems Partner to Launch ModelNova for NeuPro NPU Family, Expanding Edge AI Model Ecosystem
- Cadence Accelerates On-Device and Edge AI Performance and Efficiency with New Neo NPU IP and NeuroWeave SDK for Silicon Design
Latest News
- SEALSQ and IC’Alps Unify Expertise to Deliver Integrated Post-Quantum Cybersecurity and Functional Safety for Autonomous Vehicles
- PUFsecurity’s PUFrt Anchors the Security of Silicon Labs’ SoC to Achieve the Industry’s First PSA Certified Level 4
- The next RISC-V processor frontier: AI
- PQShield joins EU-funded FORTRESS Project: Pioneering Quantum-Safe Secure Boot for Europe’s Digital Future
- PQSecure Achieves NIST CAVP Validation