Canaan Kendryte K510
Product Overview
The Kendryte K510 is the second-generation edge AI chip released by Canaan Inc. in July 2021 (at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference), positioned for the mid-to-high-end edge inference market. Compared with the K210, its bus architecture, IP cores, and video subsystem were comprehensively redesigned, and officially it delivers 3× the K210's performance.
The K510 carries an upgraded KPU2.0 (General Neural Network Engine, GNNE) that concentrates on breaking through the "memory wall" and "performance wall", providing about 3 TOPS of compute; it also integrates a new ISP (2D/3D noise reduction, WDR, fisheye correction), H.264 encoding, and Gigabit Ethernet, targeting drone aerial photography, HD video conferencing, robotics, assisted driving, and industrial/professional cameras.
Core Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Architecture | Tri-core 64-bit RISC-V (2×@800MHz + 1×DSP @800MHz) + KPU (GNNE) + FFT/VAD |
| Process Node | 28nm |
| FP16 / BF16 Compute | Not disclosed |
| INT8 Compute | About 3 TOPS (KPU/GNNE peak) |
| FP32 Compute | Not disclosed |
| Memory Capacity | 1.5MB on-chip SRAM (1MB + 512KB) + external LPDDR3/LPDDR4 |
| Memory Type | LPDDR3 / LPDDR4 |
| Memory Bandwidth | Not disclosed |
| TDP | About 2 W (typical) |
| Interconnect | MIPI CSI / DSI, Gigabit Ethernet, USB OTG, I2S/I2C/UART/GPIO |
| Interface | SoC onboard / dev board |
| Launch | 2021-07 |
| Mass Production/Availability | Released 2021 (dev board ecosystem followed) |
Key Features
- KPU2.0 at about 3 TOPS: 3× the K210, breaking through the memory/performance walls.
- New ISP: 2D/3D noise reduction, WDR wide dynamic range, fisheye correction, hardware 3A.
- Multimedia: H.264 encoding at 1080p60, JPEG codec, MIPI CSI/DSI.
- Multi-framework: supports TensorFlow, PyTorch, ONNX, TVM, Caffe, and more.
- Flexible OS: deployable on bare metal, embedded RTOS, or Linux.
- About 2W typical power: balancing performance against edge power constraints.
Vendor Information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Company | Canaan Inc. (Nasdaq: CAN) |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China |
| Founded | 2013 |
Use Cases
- ✅ Drone HD aerial photography, HD panoramic video conferencing, robotics, assisted driving, industrial/professional cameras, STEAM education
- ❌ LLM inference, ultra-low-power always-on operation (weaker than the K210's 0.3W)
Related Cards
- /docs/cards/others/canaan-k210 — First generation in the same series (0.8 TOPS)
- /docs/cards/others/hailo — International edge NPU comparison
- /docs/cards/others/moore-threads-mtt-s5000 — Chinese GPU compute card comparison