In recent years, the concept of an “ai PC” has gone from sounding like a desperate attempt to revive the computing industry to something that could actually change the way we live with our PCs. To put it simply, an ai PC is any system that runs a CPU equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU), which is purpose-built for ai workloads. NPUs have been around for years in mobile hardware, but AMD was the first company to bring them to x86 PCs with the launch of the x-series. Ryzen Pro 7040 Chips.
Now, with its Ryzen ai 300 chips, AMD is making its biggest bet yet on ai PCs, something that could pay off down the road as we see more ai-powered features like Microsoft’s Ryzen ai 300 chip (which, it should be noted, has also been plagued by privacy concerns and has subsequently been delayed). To get a better sense of how AMD is approaching the era of ai PCs, I chatted with Ryzen ai lead Rakesh Anigundi, the Ryzen ai product lead, and Jason Banta, the executive vice president and general manager of Client OEM. You can listen to the full interview on the Engadget podcast.
My most pressing question: How does AMD plan to get developers on board with building ai-based features? After all, NPUs aren’t exactly a selling point if no one’s building apps that use them. Anigundi said he was well aware that developers, in general, “just want things to work,” so the company built a strategy around three pillars: a robust software stack; high-performance hardware; and incorporation of open source solutions.
“Our philosophy is that we don’t want to invent standards, but rather follow them,” Anigundi said. “That’s why we are betting on ONNX, which is a cross-platform framework to extract the maximum performance from our system. This is very much in line with the way we work with Microsoft, enabling their next generation of experiences and also with OEMs. And on the other hand, where there is a lot of innovation with smaller ISVs (independent software vendors), this strategy also works very well.”
He points out ai/introducing-amuse-2-0-beta-with-amd-xdna-super-resolution-a/ba-p/697374″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:AMD’s recently launched Amuse 2.0 beta;cpos:6;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>AMD recently released the beta version of Amuse 2.0 As one of the company's ways to showcase its hardware's ai capabilities, it's a simple ai image-generating program that runs entirely on its NPU-equipped device, without needing to tap into OpenAI's DallE or Google's Gemini in the cloud.
AMD's Banta reiterated the need for a great set of tools and software, but noted that the company also works closely with partners like Microsoft on hardware prototype development to ensure the quality of the customer experience. “(Consumers) can have all the hardware, they can have all the tools, they can have all the base models, but getting that end-customer experience to be great takes a lot of direct interaction time between us and those ISV partners.”
In this case, Banta is also referring to AMD’s relationship with Microsoft when it comes to building Copilot+ experiences for its systems. While we’ve seen a handful of ai features in the first batch of Copilot+ machines powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, such as the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, they’re not yet available on Copilot+ systems running x86 chips from AMD and Intel.
“We’re making that experience seamless,” Banta said. At this point, Ryzen ai 300 machines can be considered “Copilot+ ready,” but they don’t yet fully support Copilot+. (As I mentioned in my Surface Pro review, Microsoft’s current ai features are pretty basic, and that likely won’t change until Recall officially launches.)
For technology/nvidia-make-arm-based-pc-chips-major-new-challenge-intel-2023-10-23/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:those rumors around AMD developing an Arm-based CPU;cpos:9;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>Those rumors about AMD developing an Arm-based CPUNaturally, company execs weren't giving too much away. “Arm is a close partner of AMD,” Banta said. “We work together on a number of solutions on our roadmaps… As far as the overall CPU roadmap, I can't really speak to what's coming around the corner.” But given that the same rumor points to NVIDIA also developing its own Arm chip, and considering the astonishing performance we've seen from the latest mobile chips from Apple and Qualcomm, it wouldn't be too surprising to see AMD follow the same path paved by Arm.