AMD unveiled a new GPU today, the Radeon Instinct, but it’s not for gaming. The Instinct is designed for high-performance machine learning, and uses a brand new open-source library for GPU accelerators called MIOpen. Together, the Instinct and MIOpen create what AMD hopes will be an open software ecosystem for machine intelligence.
“Radeon Instinct is set to dramatically advance the pace of machine intelligence through an approach built on high-performance GPU accelerators, and free, open-source software in MIOpen and ROCm,” said AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.
That all sounds impressive, but what does the Radeon Instinct really do? Well, it’s technically a very powerful GPU, but instead of using those ample teraflops to pump out high-definition graphics, it’s using that computing power to build neural networks capable of powering machine learning applications — like the systems that power smart homes and autonomous vehicles.
Those systems require a substantial amount of processing power, and GPUs are adept at providing the specific kind of power a neural network needs. By handling data differently than standard processors, GPUs shave hours, days, or even weeks off of neural network processing compared to what a CPU would be capable of in handling the same computations.
This is because CPUs are better at handling different kinds of data all at once,such as everyday applications like Word and web browsers. GPUs on the other hand are optimized to handle one kind of code with a lot of different data inputs — all in parallel. This structure is what makes a GPU so good at processing graphics, since it doesn’t need to handle a bunch of different kinds of data all at once, it just needs to handle a specific kind of data with a lot of different variations.
“With the combination of our high-performance compute and graphics capabilities and the strength of our multi-generational roadmap, we are the only company with the GPU and x86 silicon expertise to address the broad needs of the datacenter and help advance the proliferation of machine intelligence,” Su continued.
That’s where the AMD Instinct comes in. Rather than performing machine intelligence processing on a GPU designed for gaming, AMD has designed one just for building and handling complex neural networks. The Instinct is slated for release sometime in 2017.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.