How to read this page. Each section starts Simple, then goes to a Deep dive: stop wherever you have what you need. The small numbers are sources: click one to open the original document. Where the maker has not published a figure -- a price, a die size, a factory address -- this page says so rather than estimate it.
1.At a glance
SimpleStart here
Ascend 310 is Huawei’s small AI chip for “edge” devices — cameras, inspection equipment, small boxes near where data is collected — rather than a data-centre server. Huawei unveiled it, alongside the rest of the original Ascend range, at Huawei Connect 2018 in Shanghai on 10 October 2018 1.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Huawei announced Ascend 310 as part of a planned “10-chip” AI series spanning from small edge parts to large training chips, with then-rotating-chairman Eric Xu stating exact specs for the smaller variants “will be announced next year” 1 — the 2018 event was a roadmap unveiling as much as a product launch. Huawei’s chip-design subsidiary, HiSilicon, has since published a spec sheet for it 2; this page cites that page directly for every Huawei-sourced figure below, rather than the reseller documentation an earlier draft relied on for the same numbers.
2.Launch and history
SimpleStart here
Ascend 310 is the small end of a family that also includes the much larger Ascend 910, a training chip aimed at data centres — the two were designed as opposite ends of one range, not as competitors to each other.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Huawei describes both chips as scaled versions of one underlying design philosophy: a small, low-power version for inference at the edge (Ascend 310), and a large, high-power version for training in a data centre (Ascend 910, launched the following year) 13. This page covers the 310 on its own because its role, buyers and power envelope have nothing in common with the training-class chips covered on the other Ascend pages on this site 4.
3.What’s inside it
SimpleStart here
HiSilicon’s own product page confirms an AI-processing core, described in general terms as delivering 16 TOPS at INT8 and 8 TOPS at FP16 within an 8W power budget 2.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Huawei/HiSilicon’s own page gives performance figures but no die shot, transistor count, or named core-architecture diagram for Ascend 310 — unlike the 910-series chips, which independent die-teardown analysis has documented in detail (see the Ascend 910 page on this site). This page found no independent teardown of Ascend 310 to fill that gap, so it states the company’s own performance figures and leaves the internal architecture undocumented rather than guess at it.
4.Full spec table
SimpleStart here
12-nanometre process, up to 8 watts of power — small enough for a camera or a compact edge box, not a server rack.
Deep diveThe technical detail
| Spec | Huawei Ascend 310 |
|---|
| Process node | 12-nanometre |
|---|
| Power budget | Up to 8W |
|---|
| Role | Edge inference |
|---|
| Core architecture | Da Vinci (Huawei’s own AI core design) |
|---|
| Compute (INT8) | 16 TOPS, typical configuration 2 |
|---|
| Compute (FP16) | 8 TOPS, typical configuration 2 |
|---|
Process node and power figure per contemporaneous press coverage of the 2018 unveiling 1. Compute figures per HiSilicon’s own Ascend 310 product page, which states “16 TOPS@INT8 and 8 TOPS@FP16 can be output in typical configuration, while power consumption remains at just 8 W” 2 — this page cites that figure directly rather than the reseller documentation an earlier draft relied on for the same numbers.
5.Where it’s made
SimpleStart here
Huawei names no foundry for Ascend 310 in any source this page could find.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Unlike the 910-series chips, where independent die-teardown analysis has identified a foundry switch between generations (see the Ascend 910 and Ascend 910B/910C pages on this site), this page found no equivalent independent teardown analysis of Ascend 310. Its 12-nanometre process node is reported in press coverage of the 2018 launch 1, with no manufacturer named by Huawei or by any independent analysis this page could locate.
6.Which systems use it
SimpleStart here
Sold only inside Huawei-branded and third-party edge AI modules and boxes — never as a standalone chip a customer can buy directly 5.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Third-party integrators build small edge-AI appliances around Ascend 310 modules; one example documented by a hardware reseller is an inspection/edge-box product listing Ascend 310 as its compute core 5. This is a reseller’s own product page, not a Huawei-first-party source, and is cited here only to confirm the pattern that Ascend 310 reaches customers through integrated modules, not as a component sold on its own.
7.Official pricing
SimpleStart here
Not published by the company. Huawei has never listed a standalone price for Ascend 310, consistent with the fact that it is never sold on its own.
Deep diveThe technical detail
No Huawei price list, investor material, or product page giving a chip-level or module-level price for Ascend 310 was found. Any price a customer pays is for a complete integrated product (a camera, a box, a card) built by Huawei or a partner around the chip, not for the chip itself.
9.What came before, what came next
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Came before: nothing — Ascend 310 was part of Huawei’s first Ascend generation, unveiled alongside Ascend 910 in 2018. Came after: no direct, named successor at the small edge-inference tier has been documented by Huawei; later Ascend generations (910-series, 950-series) have focused on data-centre training and inference, not this edge-device class.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Huawei’s later public roadmaps (Huawei Connect 2025 and 2026, covered on this site’s brand page and the 950PR page) name only data-centre-class chips going forward — 950PR, 950DT, 960DT, 960PR, 970, 980. This page found no evidence of a named small-edge successor to Ascend 310 in Huawei’s more recent public roadmap material; if Huawei still sells an edge tier, it was not part of the 2025–2026 keynote roadmap this site’s research covered.
10.Hidden in plain sight
SimpleStart here
Ascend 310 predates the event that reshaped the rest of the Ascend family: the 2019 US export blacklisting of Huawei. It was designed and unveiled while Huawei could still buy from any global chip foundry.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Huawei was added to the US Commerce Department’s Entity List in May 2019, seven months after Ascend 310 was unveiled in October 2018 4. Every Ascend chip that followed — starting with Ascend 910 the following August — was designed and manufactured under the export restrictions this page’s sibling pages describe in detail. Ascend 310 is the one chip in this family that was not.