Huawei · 2× · last seen Jul 29, 2026
62
Momentum
CANN (Compute Architecture for Neural Networks) is not standalone hardware, but rather the heterogeneous software architecture and toolkit developed by Huawei for AI workloads on Ascend NPUs. CANN functions as an intermediary layer between high-level frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and MindSpore and Ascend hardware, providing runtime environment, operator libraries, graph engine, and the HCCL communication library. The software is distributed through the official developer platform hiascend.com and has been progressively available as Open Source since 2025 (including on GitCode/GitHub). Currently, CANN is at version 9.0.1 (Community Edition), with predecessor versions such as 8.0.0 also in use.
Momentum trend
01.05.30.07.
Features
| License | Open source, Apache License 2.0 (e.g. container image); full opening of core components progressively since 2025 |
| Platform | Ascend NPU platform (Atlas 800I A2/A3, Atlas 300I Duo, etc.), Linux (x86_64, aarch64) |
| Price | Free to download (Community Edition) via hiascend.com; commercial use tied to Huawei hardware products |
| Release Date | Current version 9.0.1 (2026); prior version 8.0.0 from early 2025 |
| Availability | Publicly available for download to developers via hiascend.com and open-source repositories (GitHub/GitCode) |