AI training needs a new chip architecture: Intel ZDNet

The reason why industry needs new architecture for neural networks becomes apparent when you work with GPUs at a low level, according to recently appointed chief technology officer of Intel Artificial Intelligence Product Group, Amir Khosrowshahi. Khosrowshahi was previously co-founder and CTO of Nervana System, which was purchased by the chip giant for an undisclosed amount in August last year, and whose technology quickly found itself at the centre of Intel's plans for AI. Sometimes the most profound solution is to change the entire problem. The CTO detailed how his former company used GPUs because "that was the state of the art", but the company replaced the standard Nvidia assembler with one of its own because it was regarded by Nervana as generating "sub-optimal" instructions. "Early on in the history of Nervana we did this, partly for our own development efforts, but then realised it was about two or three times faster than Nvidia's own libraries, so we released it as open source," Khosrowshahi told ZDNet on Thursday. Nervana's efforts did not stop at software alone, with the company also creating its own silicon targeting neural network training.