Core Insights - The article discusses the increasing trend of smart city development in China, with 100% of sub-provincial cities, over 95% of prefecture-level cities, and more than 50% of county-level cities proposing the construction of new smart cities by the end of 2019 [1][3][15] - The demand for visual AI analysis is growing due to the increasing amount of video data in urban management and services, necessitating higher professional standards in visual AI [1][3][15] Group 1: Smart City Development - By the end of 2019, 32 major cities in China established dedicated big data management agencies for smart city construction [3][15] - The shift towards intelligent urban management and services has been supported by various policies and regulations since 2012 [3][15] Group 2: Hybrid Cloud Visual AI Appliance - The "Hybrid Cloud Visual AI Appliance" (Apsara Stack Appliance) is designed for edge computing scenarios, providing an integrated hardware and software solution that enhances system availability and operational efficiency [3][4][15] - This appliance targets urban transportation and services, featuring a unified IaaS foundation and built-in visual AI PaaS components, such as video gateways and visual algorithm scheduling engines [4][16] Group 3: Product Specifications - The "Hybrid Cloud Visual AI Appliance" offers four main specifications: dense computing type, computing storage type, NPU-enhanced type, and embedded array, with the NPU-enhanced type utilizing Alibaba's self-developed chip, the Hanguang 800, significantly boosting video analysis capabilities [5][29] - The embedded array is designed for human-machine coexistence, reducing power consumption and noise, making it suitable for office environments [5][29] Group 4: Unified Management and Performance - The appliance employs a hybrid cloud unified base, facilitating integrated management of PaaS and IaaS, and is aligned with cloud-native solutions to drive continuous business upgrades [6][30] - The self-developed NPU chip enhances hardware performance by 60%, and the rapid vector comparison algorithm allows for quick retrieval from large databases [9][33] Group 5: Intelligent Analysis and Applications - The appliance includes over 100 visual AI algorithms developed by the Damo Academy, providing comprehensive, real-time intelligent analysis capabilities [11][35] - It addresses challenges such as the high bandwidth and infrastructure demands of large-scale video data, and is applicable in various scenarios including traffic management, safety production, and housing construction [11][35]