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SemiAccurate is a harsh rag, but they're also often correct. I think the cases here are extremely likely. The Microsoft Pluton security processor is full of uns
by rektide 3y ago
SemiAccurate is a harsh rag, but they're also often correct. I think the cases here are extremely likely. The Microsoft Pluton security processor is full of unsealable back doors far worse than anything we've seen. And, AMD included Xilinx silicon with absolutely zero plan for how to use it.
> On paper the Ryzen 7040 series is supposed to open up new worlds with dedicated AI hardware, something that AMD really doesn’t want you to know about. Why? Because it is crap and unsupported. What do we mean by that? Well you would think from the hype that borders on lying through omission that it is a block like a GPU that you can send AI work to, right? Nope. It is a block of something with no disclosed features or capabilities but you can’t actually access it and despite our best efforts, SemiAccurate can’t find any documentation on it. Basically it is a closed black box at the moment, probably forever, that only specific OEMs can use.
FPGAs largely exist in a 1980s world of computing where everything is incredibly vendored & opaque. Whether AMD actually decides to start trying to sell FPGAs to the rest of us, or whether they remain in this horrible rutt FPGAs have been in where using them is a miserable walled garden is the imminent question. AMD has plenty of time to turn this around, to eventually figure it out, but this initial launch of Ryzen AI being such a slap on the face compared to a normal chip launch is still really sad to see.
- PaulHoule 3y agoI think Microsoft is being silly with “Studio Effects” requiring an A.I. block because those kind of image filters can run just fine on the CPU although they can be a power efficient way to get the job done on a phone. I have an FPGA dev board and some projects that barely fit in an AVR8 and sometimes think I’d like to make the plunge but there are so many other hacking projects to do.
- rektide 3y agoThere's a lot of folks getting busy making things that are complex only because the complexity adds to a mystique. We saw some real fake glossy shit get adopted fast by thr world, and some folks keep deciding they too are going to get into gilding everything they can.
- PaulHoule 3y agoI think people will look back one day at Clayton Christiansen’s Innovator’s Dillema as one of the most harmful business books of all time. Lately it’s caused the PC industry to make multiple attempts at self-destruction by transforming PCs into phones. This is how Intel makes PCs that crash faster than ever by imitating ARM’s big-little, Windows 8, etc. It’s how Facebook decided it’s business isn’t good enough so it has to wreck it’s reputation even faster with the pure cringe Horizon Worlds.