Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) and Mipsology, an innovative neural network acceleration startup, today announced that Mipsology’s Zebra neural network accelerator computes neural networks on Xilinx’ Alveo U200 at speeds of 2,000 images per second for ResNet50, and 3,700 images per second on Xilinx’ Alveo U250.

“Processing neural networks with Zebra on Xilinx’ Alveo gives users a faster solution than traditional GPUs at a lower price than CPUs, making FPGAs ideal devices for deep learning computation,” states Ludo Larzul, Mipsology’s founder and chief executing officer.

Combining Xilinx’s Alveo and Mipsology’s Zebra replaces CPUs and GPUs for neural network inference. Xilinx Alveo boards deliver high-performance computation in data center, while Zebra’s ease of use and high throughput enable Xilinx FPGAs of various sizes to compute any convolutional neural network with zero effort. The Alveo/Zebra solution offers 4x faster acceleration than the most popular GPU board when classifying images based on ResNet50 neural network using TensorFlow as framework.

“Zebra caught our attention with the level of acceleration achievable on our FPGAs, specifically on our Alveo cards,” says Ramine Roane, Xilinx’s Vice President of marketing. “Combining speed with the ability to deliver a pre-programmed accelerator gives Zebra a clear advantage over all other CPU or GPU acceleration solutions.”

Xilinx and Mipsology will exhibit at SC18 now through Thursday, November 15. Xilinx will be in Booth #2018. Mipsology will demonstrate Zebra in Booth #3871 as part of the Startup Pavilion.

About Xilinx

Xilinx develops highly flexible and adaptive processing platforms that enable rapid innovation across a variety of technologies – from the endpoint to the edge to the cloud. Xilinx is the inventor of the FPGA, hardware programmable SoCs and the ACAP, designed to deliver the most dynamic processor technology in the industry and enable the adaptable, intelligent and connected world of the future. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com

About Mipsology

Mipsology is a startup developing state-of-the-art FPGA-based accelerators targeted for deep learning applications in neural networks. It was founded in 2015 by a team of engineers and scientists who created a family of world-class FPGA-based super-computers over the past 20 years. More information is available at: www.mipsology.com