Neural processing unit
Neural processing units (NPU) are specialized processors designed to accelerate machine learning and AI-related tasks. They are commonly integrated into modern SoCs (System-on-Chip), including those found in mobile devices, single-board computers, and some newer laptops and desktops. NPUs help offload computation from the CPU and GPU, improving performance and reducing power consumption for AI workloads.
Installation
AMD XDNA
The AMD XDNA-based NPU is supported via the amdxdna kernel driver, which is included in recent versions of the Linux kernel and enabled automatically.
To verify if the NPU has been detected and initialized:
$ journalctl -kg xdna
You can also check with rocminfo:
$ /opt/rocm/bin/rocminfo
Look for agents indicating XDNA or NPU support in the output. If properly working, an agent should list ISAs under the ISA Info entry.
Intel NPU
The Intel NPU driver is included in the latest version of the linux package.
To Verify whether the system detects the NPU:
$ journalctl -kg intel_vpu # or $ lspci | grep "Processing accelerators"
