Latest news with #StephenNellis
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia-backed Enfabrica releases system aimed at easing memory costs
By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Enfabrica, a Silicon Valley-based chip startup working on solving bottlenecks in artificial intelligence data centers, on Tuesday released a chip-and-software system aimed at reining in the cost of memory chips in those centers. Enfabrica, which has raised $260 million in venture capital to date and is backed by Nvidia, released a system it calls EMFASYS, pronounced like "emphasis." The system aims to address the fact that a portion of the high cost of flagship AI chips from Nvidia or rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices is not the computing chips themselves, but the expensive high-bandwidth memory (HBM) attached to them that is required to keep those speedy computing chips supplied with data. Those HBM chips are supplied by makers such as SK Hynix and Micron Technology. The Enfabrica system uses a special networking chip that it has designed to hook the AI computing chips up directly to boxes filled with another kind of memory chip called DDR5 that is slower than its HBM counterpart but much cheaper. By using special software, also made by Enfabrica, to route data back and forth between AI chips and large amounts of lower-cost memory, Enfabrica is hoping its chip will keep data center speeds up but costs down as tech companies ramp up chatbots and AI agents, said Enfabrica Co-Founder and CEO Rochan Sankar. Rochan said Enfabrica has three "large AI cloud" customers using the chip but declined to disclose their names. "It's not replacing" HBM, Sankar told Reuters. "It is capping (costs) where those things would otherwise have to blow through the roof in order to scale to what people are expecting." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia-backed Enfabrica releases system aimed at easing memory costs
By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Enfabrica, a Silicon Valley-based chip startup working on solving bottlenecks in artificial intelligence data centers, on Tuesday released a chip-and-software system aimed at reining in the cost of memory chips in those centers. Enfabrica, which has raised $260 million in venture capital to date and is backed by Nvidia, released a system it calls EMFASYS, pronounced like "emphasis." The system aims to address the fact that a portion of the high cost of flagship AI chips from Nvidia or rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices is not the computing chips themselves, but the expensive high-bandwidth memory (HBM) attached to them that is required to keep those speedy computing chips supplied with data. Those HBM chips are supplied by makers such as SK Hynix and Micron Technology. The Enfabrica system uses a special networking chip that it has designed to hook the AI computing chips up directly to boxes filled with another kind of memory chip called DDR5 that is slower than its HBM counterpart but much cheaper. By using special software, also made by Enfabrica, to route data back and forth between AI chips and large amounts of lower-cost memory, Enfabrica is hoping its chip will keep data center speeds up but costs down as tech companies ramp up chatbots and AI agents, said Enfabrica Co-Founder and CEO Rochan Sankar. Rochan said Enfabrica has three "large AI cloud" customers using the chip but declined to disclose their names. "It's not replacing" HBM, Sankar told Reuters. "It is capping (costs) where those things would otherwise have to blow through the roof in order to scale to what people are expecting."
Business Insider
21-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Microsoft stops using China engineers for U.S. military support, Reuters says
Microsoft (MSFT) plans to stop using engineers based in China to provide technical assistance to the U.S. military, Stephen Nellis of Reuters reports. This comes after a report by ProPublica sparked questions from a U.S. senator and caused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to order a review of Pentagon cloud deals. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week.
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Apple eyes using AI to design its chips, technology executive says
By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO: Apple is interested in tapping generative artificial intelligence to help speed up the design of the custom chips at the heart of its devices, its top hardware technology executive said in private remarks last month. Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, made the remarks in a speech in Belgium, where he was receiving an award from Imec, an independent semiconductor research and development group that works closely with most of the world's biggest chipmakers. In the speech, a recording of which was reviewed by Reuters, Srouji outlined Apple's development of custom chips from the first A4 chip in an iPhone in 2010 to the most recent chips that power Mac desktop computers and the Vision Pro headset. He said one of the key lessons Apple learned was that it needed to use the most cutting-edge tools available to design its chips, including the latest chip design software from electronic design automation (EDA) firms. The two biggest players in that industry - Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys - have been racing to add artificial intelligence to their offerings. "EDA companies are super critical in supporting our chip design complexities," Srouji said in his remarks. "Generative AI techniques have a high potential in getting more design work in less time, and it can be a huge productivity boost." Srouji said another key lesson Apple learned in designing its own chips was to make big bets and not look back. When Apple transitioned its Mac computers - its oldest active product line - from Intel's chips to its own chips in 2020, it made no contingency plans in case the switch did not work. "Moving the Mac to Apple Silicon was a huge bet for us. There was no backup plan, no split-the lineup plan, so we went all in, including a monumental software effort," Srouji said.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Adobe brings AI-image generation app to phones, adds partners
By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Adobe Inc. released its first dedicated artificial intelligence smartphone app on Tuesday that includes AI models from the company and partner firms, in a bid to tap into a growing trend of sharing AI images and videos over social media. The new app, called Firefly, packages Adobe's own AI model together with models from new partner firms Ideogram, Luma AI, Pika and Runway, and is available on iOS and Android phones. Previously, the service was available only as a web version, that used models from Alphabet's GOOGL.O> Google and OpenAI in addition to Adobe's model. Those models will also be available in the app, Adobe said. Generating images that can easily be shared on social media has become a key driver of AI interest, with OpenAI's Ghibli-style AI images driving record traffic to the ChatGPT creator. Adobe's mobile service will offer subscribers unlimited basic image generation from Adobe models, while it will charge extra for access to the company's premium models and those from its partners. The subscription cost will be the same as for the web versions of Firefly, which start at $10 per month. The San Jose, California-based company had earlier released AI tools along with the mobile app version of its popular image-editing program Photoshop. Adobe has not disclosed how much it pays the partner models on the Firefly app. The company had promised users that its AI model is trained only on material that it has a legal right to use, with Adobe offering protection against copyright claims. Ely Greenfield, Adobe's chief technology officer for digital media, said Adobe's approach has also gained some resonance among consumers. "Even for many of our individual customers, that promise of the commercial safety and the story about how Firefly is trained continues to be a really important differentiator," Greenfield said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
