Introduction

Basic Features

Kneron PLUS stands for Platform Library Unified Software which is a framework comprising new software(SW) and firmware(FW) design for KL520, KL720, and KL630 (and alpha for KL730).

In order to run the inference of models on Kneron AI devices, there are three parts of AI application development are required:

Below diagram depicts three parts of development in a big picture.

However, this document only focuses on the software development and the firmware development. For the model development, please refer to the Toolchain Docker part.

In comparison with the previous SW/FW framework, this aims to simplify the design flow for AI applications development.

Below gives some definitions regarding the Kneron PLUS:

The features which PLUS Supported are listed below:

Index Category Supported Item Min Version (KL520/KL720) Min Version (KL630) [1] Min Version (KL730) [2] KL520 KL720 KL630 KL730
1 Image Format RGBA8888 , RAW8 , Packed YCbCr422 (YUYV422) , RGB565
2 Planar YUV420 X X
3 System Firmware In Flash
4 Model In Flash
5 Runtime Upload Firmware X
6 Runtime Upload Model
7 Software Reset
8 Software Shutdown (Developing Broad Only) X X X
9 Software Reboot
10 Scan Devices
11 Device Log via USB X X X
12 Device Connection : All Devices, Specified Device(s)
13 Inference Flexible Send / Receive Inference
14 Multiple Device Auto Dispatch
15 Enable / Disable Pre-process on Device
16 Enable / Disable Post-process on Device
17 Output Floating Point / Fixed Point Result
18 Enable / Disable Debug Checkpoints v1.3.0
19 Enable / Disable Execution Time Profiling v1.3.0
20 System / Model Info Get Firmware Version
21 Get KN Number
22 Get Model CRC
23 Get Model Info
24 Install Device Driver for Windows v1.3.0
25 Application API Generic Image Inference v2.0.0
26 Generic Data Inference v2.0.0
27 Customized Inference (C code only)
28 User Define API (C code only)
29 System Examples Get Firmware Info
30 Get Model Info
31 Reboot Device
32 Shutdown Device X X X
33 Device FIFO Queue Config Example v2.0.0
34 Inference Examples Generic Image Inference (Raw Output) v2.0.0
35 Generic Image Inference (with Crop) v2.0.0
36 Generic Image Inference (with Post Process on Host Side) v2.0.0
37 Generic Image Inference (Multiple Threads) v2.0.0
38 Generic Image Inference (Model in Flash) v2.0.0
39 Generic Image Inference (Web Cam with Drop Frame) v2.0.0
40 Generic Data Inference (with Pre Process on Host Side) v2.0.0
41 User Define API Inference (Yolo with Config Post Process) (C code only) v1.3.0
42 Customized Inference with Single Model (C code only) v2.0.0 for KL720
43 Customized Inference with Multiple Models (C code only) v2.0.0 for KL720
44 Debug Examples Debug Checkpoints Example v1.3.0 X X X
45 Execution Time Profiling Example v1.3.0 X X X
46 Model Zoo Examples Simple examples for pre-trained models X X

Note: - [1] If the minimum version is not written, this feature is supported from v2.1.1. - [2] If the minimum version is not written, this feature is supported from v2.3.0.

The following components are contained in Kneron PLUS:


Advanced Features for Enterprise Version

Besides the basic features, there are few advanced features provided in Kneron PLUS Enterprise:

Note: Most of the advanced features and examples are C code only. Only Update Kdp2 to Kdp2 Flash Boot has the python version example.

Index Category Supported Item Min Version (KL520/KL720) Min Version (KL630) Min Version (KL730) KL520 KL720 KL630 KL730
1 System Runtime Upload Firmware via UART X X X
2 Hico Mode (MIPI image input, Companion Result Output) v2.1.1 v2.3.0 X
3 Examples Update Kdp to Kdp2 Usb Boot X X X
4 Update Kdp2 to Kdp2 Usb Boot v2.1.1 v2.3.0 X
5 Update Kdp to Kdp2 Flash Boot X X
6 Update Kdp2 to Kdp2 Flash Boot v2.1.1 v2.3.0
7 Update Model to Flash v2.1.1 v2.3.0
8 Upload Firmware via UART X X X
9 Upload Firmware via Usb for No-Flash Device v2.0.0 X X X
10 Read / Write Device Memory X X
11 Access Firmware Log via USB X X X
12 Hico Cam Inference [1] [2] [3] v2.1.1 v2.3.0 X
13 Hico ToF Inference (Kneron ToF module is required) v1.3.0 X X X

Note: