As AI Matures, Chips Will Get Customized

"Future computer chips may be able to help ease the alarming energy demands of generative artificial intelligence, but chip makers say they need something from AI first: a slowdown in the pace of change.

Graphics processing units have dominated the bulk of training and running large-scale AI models so far. The chips, originally built for gaming graphics, offer a unique blend of high performance with the flexibility and programmability required to keep up with today's constantly shifting swirl of AI models.

Nvidia's dominance in the GPU market has propelled it to a trillion-dollar valuation, but others, including Advanced Micro Devices, also make the chips.

As the industry coalesces around more-standardized model designs, there will be an opportunity to build more custom chips that don't require as much programmability and flexibility, said Lisa Su, chief executive at AMD. That will make them more energy-efficient, smaller and cheaper.

"GPUs right now are the architecture of choice for large language models, because they're very, very efficient for parallel processing, but they give you just a little bit of programmability," Su said. "Do I believe that that's going to be the architecture of choice in five-plus years? I think it will change." What Su expects isn't a shift away from GPUs, but a broadening beyond GPUs.

Nvidia and AMD haven't been vocal around specific plans. Nvidia declined to comment for this article.

Some custom chips are already at work handling aspects of AI. Large cloud providers like Amazon.com and Google have developed their own custom AI chips for internal use, such as Amazon's AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia, and Google's tensor processing units, or TPUs. These are built to execute specific functions.

Custom chips can be more energy efficient, cheaper and smaller because they can be hard-wired to a given degree: They can perform one specific function, run one specific type of model or even one specific model itself, said Shane Rau, research vice president for computing semiconductors at market intelligence firm International Data Corp.

But the market for commercially selling these super-custom, application-specific chips is still immature, Rau said, a symptom of how much innovation is happening in AI models.

Highly customized chips also present a challenging lack of flexibility and interoperability, said Chirag Dekate, a vice president analyst at research firm Gartner. To the extent they are programmable, they are very difficult to program, typically requiring custom software stacks, and it can be difficult to make them work with other kinds of chips.

Many chip offerings today exist on a continuum, with some GPUs that can be more customized and some specialized chips that provide a level of programmability. That gives chip makers an opportunity, even before generative AI becomes more standardized.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to computing, said Su. AI models in the future will use a combination of different types of chips, including GPUs and more specialized chips still to be developed, for various functions." [1]

1. Business News: As AI Matures, Chips Will Get Customized. Bousquette, Isabelle.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Sep 2024: B.3.

Pramonės subsidijos vadinamos „kenksmingu pinigų švaistymu“

 

 „ŠANCHAJUS – Vaistų gamintojos „Roche“ vadovas pasmerkė pastaruoju metu JAV ir Europos vyriausybių subsidijų pramonei bumą ir pavadino jas „kenksmingu pinigų švaistymu“.

 

 „Roche“ atstovas Severinas Schwanas apsilankė Šanchajuje verslo forume, kad sukritikuotų paramą, kurią Vakarų šalys vis dažniau siūlo, kad suteikti savo gamybos pramonei postūmį prieš Kinijos ir kitų šalių konkurenciją.

 

 Subsidijų atgimimas JAV ir Europoje „iškreipia konkurencijos vertę ir vienodas sąlygas“, sakė Schwanas. – "Tikrai matau pavojų, kad žmonės šokinėja į tą vagoną."

 

 Schwanas yra tarptautinių verslo lyderių tarybos, kuri pataria Šanchajaus merui, pirmininkas. Sekmadienį jis kalbėjo metiniame tarybos posėdyje po vizito Pekine, per kurį šalies vicepremjerui pasakė, kad Šveicarijoje įsikūrusi bendrovė „Roche“ yra kupina pasitikėjimo Kinijos ekonominėmis perspektyvomis, pranešė valstybinė žiniasklaida.

 

 JAV ir Europos Sąjunga jau seniai kaltino Kiniją suteikus savo įmonėms nesąžiningą pranašumą subsidijomis, lengvu kreditu ir kita vyriausybės parama. Viename Vašingtono ekspertų grupės Strateginių ir tarptautinių studijų centro skaičiavimuose nustatyta, kad Kinijos valstybės parama jos pramonei plačiąja prasme siekia beveik 5% jos metinių nacionalinių pajamų.

 

 ES planuoja Kinijos elektra varomoms transporto priemonėms įvesti tarifus, kurie, pasak ES, reikalingi, kad būtų išlygintos sąlygos.

 

 Schwanas teigė, kad tokia Vakarų politika neduoda rezultatų, nes skatina įmones ištiesti rankas, kad gauti vyriausybės teikiamas paslaugas.

 

 Jis nekomentavo Kinijos subsidijų politikos, bet pasiūlė Pekinui nebandyti sekti JAV ir Europos. „Čia, Kinijoje, jūs turite galimybę pasielgti teisingai“." [1]

 

1. World News: Industrial Subsidies Are Called A 'Waste'. Landers, Peter.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Sep 2024: A.18.

Industrial Subsidies Are Called A 'Waste'

"SHANGHAI -- The chairman of drugmaker Roche denounced the recent boom in industrial subsidies by the U.S. and European governments and called them a "waste of money."

Roche's Severin Schwan used a visit to Shanghai for a business forum to criticize support that Western nations have increasingly offered to give their manufacturing industries a boost against competition from China and other nations.

The revival of subsidies in the U.S. and Europe "distorts the value of competition and a level playing field," Schwan said. "I really see a danger that people are jumping on that wagon."

Schwan is chairman of a council of international business leaders that advises the mayor of Shanghai. He spoke on Sunday at the council's annual meeting after a visit to Beijing in which he told the country's vice premier that Switzerland-based Roche was full of confidence in China's economic prospects, state media reported.

The U.S. and European Union have long accused China of giving its companies an unfair edge through subsidies, easy access to credit and other government support. One estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, found the scale of China's state support for its industries by a broad definition reached nearly 5% of its annual national income.

The EU is planning tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that the EU says are needed to even out the playing field.

Schwan said such Western policies were counterproductive because they encouraged companies to put their hands out for government favors.

He didn't comment on China's subsidy policies, but suggested Beijing shouldn't try to follow the U.S. and Europe. "Here in China, you have a chance to do the right thing."" [1]

1. World News: Industrial Subsidies Are Called A 'Waste'. Landers, Peter.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Sep 2024: A.18.