Month: July 2024
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Microchip Nixes FPGA to Make Its First 64-Bit Microprocessors
Initially a supplier of low-cost 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), Microchip Technology has since evolved its portfolio and grown by acquisition. Still emphasizing low-cost chips, it now offers quad-core, 64-bit microprocessors (MPUs). The new PIC64GX processors integrate four RISC-V CPUs and peripherals such as DRAM, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, and PCIe controllers. A fifth CPU monitors the chip…
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Will InspireSemi’s 1,536-Core RISC-V Processor Inspire Customers?
Every few years someone realizes that many small CPUs on a chip have many times the peak performance of a single small CPU. Unfortunately for the companies that pursue this idea, this approach is rarely (if ever) better than fewer, more powerful cores or specialized engines. Nonetheless, Inspire Semiconductor continues down this extreme-multicore path and…
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Etched Sohu Commits Transformers to Silicon
“If transformers go away…we’ll be hosed,” Etched CEO Gavin Uberti told Bloomberg in March. Last week Etched received $120 million to develop its Sohu NPU, promising a chip 10× faster than the Nvidia Blackwell GB200 and 20× faster than a Hopper H100 on Llama-3 70B and other transformer-based AI models. Articles online have raised the…