Open Source Updates

CANN 8.5.0 introduces a re-architected, fully open-source framework. Key enhancements in this release include:

Open source: CANN 8.5.0 exposes low-level capabilities and introduces an open-source architecture for Atlas A2 and A3 series products, covering essential modules such as operator libraries, communication libraries, graph engines, programming APIs, runtimes, drivers, and toolchains. Open-source code repository enables deep customization, specialized innovation, and granular performance tuning tailored to specific business workloads.
Independent upgrade: The operator libraries (ops-math, ops-nn, ops-cv, and ops-transformer) and communication libraries (HCCL and HIXL) can be upgraded and released independently. During the upgrade, you can select only the required component packages to minimize unnecessary overhead. For details, see Figure 1.

Figure 1 CANN subpackage architecture

The architecture upgrade also brings changes to the software package name, quantity, installation scheme, and directory. The changes are as follows:

1. The software package name, quantity, and installation scheme are changed.

After the CANN open-source architecture is upgraded, the operator package name is changed from kernels to ops.
When installing CANN 8.5.0, you must install Toolkit and ops.
The nnae and nnrt packages are not released in this version and are incorporated into the Toolkit package.

For details about the software package changes, see the following table.

**Table 1** CANN package change details
Version History	8.5.0
Ascend-cann-kernels-310b_8.3.RC1_linux-*	Ascend-cann-310b-ops_8.5.0_linux-*
Ascend-cann-kernels-310p_8.3.RC1_linux-*	Ascend-cann-310p-ops_8.5.0_linux-*
Ascend-cann-kernels-910_8.3.RC1_linux-*	Ascend-cann-910-ops_8.5.0_linux-*
Ascend-cann-kernels-910b_8.3.RC1_linux-*	Ascend-cann-910b-ops_8.5.0_linux-*
Atlas-A3-cann-kernels_8.3.RC1_linux-*	Ascend-cann-A3-ops_8.5.0_linux-*
Ascend-cann-nnae_8.3.RC1_linux-*	/
Ascend-cann-nnrt_8.3.RC1_linux-*	/

2. The software package rollback mode is changed.

After CANN 8.5.0 is uninstalled using the --uninstall option, use the --install option to install an earlier version. You cannot use the --upgrade option to roll back to an earlier version.

3. The installation path, environment variable path, and SO/header file/public directory are changed to be compatible with the paths in earlier versions. However, you are advised to adapt to the new paths.

Change Description	Version History	8.5.0
Default installation path	/usr/local/Ascend/ascend-toolkit/<version>	/usr/local/Ascend/cann-<version>
Environment variable path	source /usr/local/Ascend/ascend-toolkit/set_env.sh	source /usr/local/Ascend/cann/set_env.sh
SO files, header files, and public directories (Runtime, GE, Ascend C, and operator libraries)	/usr/local/Ascend/ascend-toolkit/latest/*	/usr/local/Ascend/cann/*

4. The CANN 8.5.0 version must be used with the matched Ascend component version. When you upgrade CANN to version 8.5.0, you need to upgrade the Ascend components. The version mapping is as follows:

AI frameworks: Ascend Extension for PyTorch 7.3.0, MindSpore 2.7.2, and TensorFlow Adapter For Ascend 8.5.0
Application enablement: MindSpeed 2.3.0, MindIE 2.3.0, MindCluster 7.3.0, MindEdge 7.3.0, and MindSDK 7.3.0
Full-pipeline development toolchain: MindStudio 8.3.0