Intel's Vice President and General Manager of Client AI, John Rayfield, has reportedly switched teams, as he embarks on his new journey at AMD.
AMD Plans on Ramping Up AI Developments, John Rayfield of Intel to Play a Crucial Role
John Rayfield was responsible for developing hardware and software resources at Intel, particularly those targeted toward "low-power AI". He is known for contributions towards bringing "innovation" for AI-based applications at Intel, and some categorized him as one of the minds behind Meteor Lake's VPU (Versatile Processing Unit), which is said to be an element of the upcoming lineup that will significantly improve AI computing performance in consumer CPUs, giving them the ability to harness the power of genAI.
For those unaware of VPUs, they are indeed the next big thing in the industry. It is Intel's take on AI developments, providing a platform for an average consumer to fulfill his AI needs without going out of the way. The rapid development of AI has led to a tremendous increase in generative AI applications, due to which a "dedicated" processing unit becomes necessary. Here are some of the advantages mentioned by Intel of the inclusion of VPUs in the Meteor Lake lineup.
- Enhanced Audio Effects
- Creator And Gaming Effects
- AI Assistants (Microsoft 365 Copilot)
- Bringing AI locally to client machines.
The second-tier advantages include:
- AI Compute Required For Enhancements GOPS
- AI Compute Required For Large Language Models (TOPS) - ChatGPT
Now, we went into the depths of discussing VPUs because John Rayfield has made some big contributions within Team Blue's camp, which made this a possibility. On AMD's camp, the company recently unveiled a dedicated AI engine named "AMD XDNA" and also its new "Ryzen AI" suite which brought ML & AI capabilities as a part of dedicated on-chip hardware featured on Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" processors. With that, AMD plans on transitioning the technology to desktop processors as well, and with the inclusion of Rayfield, developments will indeed speed up.
By now, it is evident that AI is the next big thing in the industry, with AMD's CEO Lisa Su categorizing it as a "most important thing" moving forward in the next ten years. It is expected that companies would poach talent from competitors to boast their own AI developments and this might very well be the case here. This will undoubtedly lead to advancements in chip designs and the integration of technologies, which we have seen a glimpse of with the industry's adoption of "dedicated AI engines".
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