Request
Add an AMD XDNA NPU backend for edge inference, targeting AMD Ryzen AI processors (Ryzen AI 300 series with XDNA 2 NPU, Ryzen 8040 series with XDNA NPU).
- Architecture reference: AMD XDNA™ Architecture
- Software stack: AMD Ryzen AI Software (model export via ONNX → MLIR, execution on the AI Engine tile array via the NPU driver)
Why this backend
eddy's mission is "C++ inference library for multi-vendor edge NPUs." Today only Intel OpenVINO NPU is supported. AMD Ryzen AI is the other major PC-class NPU and would meaningfully expand hardware coverage:
- XDNA is a spatial dataflow NPU — tiled array of AI Engine processors (VLIW SIMD vector + scalar cores, on-chip memory, up to 1.3GHz). Deterministic, library-based compilation. Relevant for the fixed-shape transformer workloads eddy runs.
- XDNA 2 targets Generative AI on PC — AMD explicitly positions it for on-device GenAI, which overlaps with ASR model inference.
- Same model export pipeline: eddy already exports models to ONNX for OpenVINO; the AMD Ryzen AI stack also consumes ONNX, so model artifacts could be shared with a backend-specific compile step.
Suggested scope
- Integrate the AMD Ryzen AI Software SDK (model optimizer + NPU runtime) as an optional CMake backend (
EDDY_ENABLE_AMD_XDNA), parallel to the existing OpenVINO path.
- Reuse the existing ONNX export pipeline for Parakeet V2/V3 and Whisper; the AMD stack performs its own MLIR-based compilation to the NPU.
- Add a
--device NPU_AMD (or backend-agnostic abstraction) device selector alongside the existing NPU (Intel) / CPU / AUTO.
- Benchmark on a Ryzen AI 300 series platform and add results to BENCHMARK_RESULTS.md.
- Handle the NPU-driver/SDK detection and graceful fallback when AMD hardware is absent.
Notes
- This is already on the roadmap ("AMD Ryzen AI Software backend"). Filing to capture the specific ask and link the architecture reference for scoping.
- Worth deciding whether the backend abstraction should be formalized now (a
Backend interface with OpenVINO/XDNA/QNN implementations) or kept ad-hoc until a third backend lands. QNN (Qualcomm) is also on the roadmap.
Request
Add an AMD XDNA NPU backend for edge inference, targeting AMD Ryzen AI processors (Ryzen AI 300 series with XDNA 2 NPU, Ryzen 8040 series with XDNA NPU).
Why this backend
eddy's mission is "C++ inference library for multi-vendor edge NPUs." Today only Intel OpenVINO NPU is supported. AMD Ryzen AI is the other major PC-class NPU and would meaningfully expand hardware coverage:
Suggested scope
EDDY_ENABLE_AMD_XDNA), parallel to the existing OpenVINO path.--device NPU_AMD(or backend-agnostic abstraction) device selector alongside the existingNPU(Intel) /CPU/AUTO.Notes
Backendinterface with OpenVINO/XDNA/QNN implementations) or kept ad-hoc until a third backend lands. QNN (Qualcomm) is also on the roadmap.