Today at the Computex 2024 opening keynote, AMD detailed new CPU, NPU and GPU architectures powering end-to-end AI infrastructure from the data centre to PCs.
The company unveiled an expanded AMD Instinct accelerator roadmap, introducing an annual cadence of leadership AI accelerators including the new AMD Instinct MI325X accelerator with industry-leading memory capacity planned to be available in Q4 2024.
AMD also previewed 5th Gen AMD EPYC server processors, on track to launch in 2H 2024, with leadership performance and efficiency. AMD announced AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series, the third generation of AMD AI-enabled mobile processors, and AMD Ryzen 9000 Series processors for laptop and desktop PCs, respectively.
“This is an incredibly exciting time for AMD as the rapid and accelerating adoption of AI is driving increased demand for our high-performance computing platforms,” says Dr Lisa Su, chair and CEO. “At Computex, we were proud to be joined by Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, Asus and other strategic partners to launch our next-generation Ryzen desktop and notebook processors, preview the leadership performance of our next-generation EPYC processors, and announce a new annual cadence for AMD Instinct AI accelerators.”
Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, comments: “We are in the midst of a massive AI platform shift, with the promise to transform how we live and work. That’s why our deep partnership with AMD, which has spanned multiple computing platforms, from the PC to custom silicon for Xbox, and now to AI, is so important to us.
“We are excited to partner with AMD to deliver these new Ryzen AI powered Copilot+ PCs. We are very committed to our collaboration with AMD and we’ll continue to push AI progress forward together across the cloud and edge to bring new value to our joint customers.”
AI and Enterprise Compute for the Data Centre
AMD detailed its expanded multi-generational accelerator roadmap, showing how it plans to deliver performance and memory leadership on an annual cadence for generative AI. The expanded roadmap includes the AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, with planned availability in Q4 2024, delivering industry leading memory capacity with 288GB of ultra-fast HBM3E memory that extends AMD generative AI performance leadership.
The next-generation AMD CDNA 4 architecture, expected in 2025, will power the AMD Instinct MI350 Series and is expected to drive up to 35x better AI inference performance compared to AMD Instinct MI300 Series with AMD CDNA 33. Continuing performance and feature improvements, the CDNA “Next” architecture will power MI400 series accelerators planned for 2026.
Previewed today at Computex, 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors (codenamed “Turin”) will leverage the “Zen 5” core and continue the leadership performance and efficiency of the AMD EPYC processor family. 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors are targeted for availability in 2H of 2024.
At the keynote, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted how AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators deliver leading price/performance on GPT-4 inference for Microsoft Azure workloads.
Reimagining the PC
Dr Su was joined by executives from Microsoft, HP, Lenovo and Asus to unveil new PC experiences powered by 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors and AMD Ryzen 9000 Series desktop processors.
AMD detailed its next generation “Zen 5” CPU core, built from the ground up for leadership performance and energy efficiency spanning from supercomputers and the cloud to PCs. AMD also unveiled the AMD XDNA 2 NPU core architecture that delivers 50 TOPs of AI processing performance4 and up to 2x projected power efficiency for generative AI workloads compared to the prior generation.
The AMD XDNA 2 architecture-based NPU is the industry’s first and only NPU supporting advanced Block FP16 data type6, delivering increased accuracy compared to lower precision data types used by competitive NPUs without sacrificing performance. Together, “Zen 5,” AMD XDNA 2 and AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics enable next-gen AI experiences in laptops powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors.
AMD also unveiled the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series desktop processors based on the “Zen 5” architecture, delivering leadership performance in gaming, productivity and content creation. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processors are the world’s fastest consumer desktop processors7.
Separately, AMD also announced the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot workstation graphics card, optimised to deliver scalable AI performance for platforms supporting multiple GPUs. AMD also unveiled AMD ROCm 6.1 for AMD Radeon GPUs, designed to make AI development and deployment with AMD Radeon desktop GPUs more compatible, accessible and scalable.
Powering the Next Wave of Edge AI
AMD showcased how its AI and adaptive computing technology is powering the next wave of AI innovation at the edge. Only AMD combines all the IP required for whole edge AI application acceleration. The new AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 brings together FPGA programmable logic for real-time pre-processing, next-gen AI Engines powered by XDNA technology for efficient AI inference, and embedded CPUs for post-processing to deliver the highest performing single chip adaptive solution for edge AI. AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices are available now for early access with over 30 key partners currently in development.
AMD showcased how it is enabling AI at the edge across verticals, including:
* Illumina is using advanced AMD technology to unlock the power of genome sequencing.
* Subaru is using AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices to power its EyeSight ADAS Platform to help enable Subaru’s “zero-fatalities” mission by 2030.
* Canon uses the Versal AI Core series for its Free Viewpoint Video System, revolutionising viewing experience for live sport broadcasts and webcasts.
* Hitachi Energy’s HVDC protection relays predict electrical overvoltage using AMD adaptive computing technology for real-time processing.