NPU Profiler: Neuron Studio

Overview

Neuron Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and AI toolkit designed to help the developer develop and optimize AI models on MediaTek platforms.

Supported Platforms and OS

Supported Platforms: Genio 720-EVK (MT8391), Genio 520-EVK (MT8371).
Supported OS: Android.

Profiling Capabilities

The tool monitors the following performance metrics to help identify bottlenecks:

NPU Frequency: Displays the operational clock speed of the hardware engines during inference.
NPU Loading: Represents the utilization percentage, indicating the workload intensity on the NPU cores.
DRAM Utilization: Monitors the memory occupancy required for model tensors and intermediate buffers.
DRAM Bandwidth: (Not supported). To obtain memory resource information, the developer must contact a MediaTek representative to request the MediaTek Evaluation Tool (MET).

Profile Overview

Installation

Download the Android NDK. Obtain the NDK from the official Android NDK download page.
Obtain Neuron Studio. Contact the MediaTek representative to request the Neuron Studio installation package.
Configure Neuron Studio.
- Execute neuron-studio.exe.
- Configure the Android NDK path: Navigate to File -> Settings -> Android NDK, click +New, select the NDK folder, and click OK.
- Restart Neuron Studio to apply the changes.

Profiling Workflow

Connect the device. Connect the Genio platform to the host PC using a Type-C cable via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).
Enable root access.
```
adb root
```
Record the trace.
- In the Neuron Studio interface, navigate to Profile -> Record -> MediaTek Devices on ADB and select the target device (e.g., mtxxxx).
- Run the target AI workload, such as a benchmark or application.
- Stop the recording to display the trace and save the results as a .json file.
Analyze the results. The developer can perform analysis using the Neuron Studio interface or external tools such as Perfetto.