Qualcomm today at its Snapdragon Summit 2021 announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to bring the latter's Neural Architecture Search to Qualcomm platforms. The move is designed to speed up the development of AI models at the edge. Qualcomm claims the announcement will make it the first system-on-a-chip (SoC) customer to offer the Google Cloud Vertex AI Neural Architecture Search services. It will first be available on the Snapdragon 8, Gen 1 Mobile Platform, followed by the Snapdragon portfolio across mobile, IoT, automotive, and XR platforms. As AI/ML hardware has become more widespread, attention has turned to the software stack, which often consists of point solutions.

Last year Qualcomm started rolling out its first chips for Android phones that supported upgradeable GPU drivers to optimize performance, so now it's doing a similar thing for on-device AI and machine learning. Droid-Life points out that during Google I/O, Google and Qualcomm have announced updatable neural network API drivers, representing a new model that will roll out along with Android 12. While NN API drivers have usually been updated along with major OS updates, now the companies say they can roll out quickly via Google Play Services. Even better, the updates will be available for older chipsets and multiple versions of Android. In an I/O presentation about advancements in machine learning, Google developers said the NN API could boost performance as though the phone had two additional CPU cores, while using less power and creating less heat.