AI And The Third Wave Of Silicon Processors

The semiconductor industry is currently caught in the middle of what I call the third great wave of silicon development for processing data. This time, the surge in investment is driven by the rising hype and promising future of artificial intelligence, which relies on machine learning techniques referred to as deep learning. As a veteran with over 30 years in the chip business, I have seen this kind of cycle play out twice before, but the amount of money being plowed into the deep learning space today is far beyond the amount invested during the other two cycles combined. The first great wave of silicon processors began with the invention of the microprocessor itself in the early 70s. There are several claimants to the title of the first microprocessor, but by the early 1980s, it was clear that microprocessors were going to be a big business, and almost every major semiconductor company (Intel, TI, Motorola, IBM, National Semiconductor) had jumped into the race, along with a number of hot startups.