Microsoft Finally Reveals HoloLens Processor Specifications

Microsoft has put in a lot of effort into its augmented reality headset HoloLens and it seems like the company has large expectations from the product as well. The Redmond-based company kept the product a secret in its early stages of development but then realised that it needed developers to ensure that the users are able to get the most out of its device.

However, the important thing that was not leaked just until now were the device's processor specifications.

On Monday, Microsoft revealed the specifications of its Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) used inside its AR headset at Hot Chips conference in Cupertino, California. The Register reports that the HPU present inside HoloLens is a custom-designed TSMC-fabricated 28nm coprocessor with Tensilica DSP cores.

The HoloLens HPU comes with 8MB of SRAM, 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM, around 65 million logic gates, and it all fits in 12mm-by-12mm BGA package that is capable of performing a trillion calculations per second.

Holographic Processing Unit's function is to gather the data from the sensors and process the movements made by the person who is wearing the headset. Microsoft at the conference pointed out that as the gathering and processing of data happens all in hardware, results are faster than if using a general purpose CPU. Further, each DSP core is allotted a specific task.

The HPU reportedly draws less than 10W and also includes PCIe and standard serial interfaces.

Along with the HPU, the HoloLens features a 14nm 64-bit Intel Atom x86 Cherry Trail SOC and runs a 32-bit version of Windows 10.

To recall, Microsoft started shipping the Development Edition of HoloLens in March this year.