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Dylan Martin
John Rayfield leaves his job as head of consumer AI at Intel for a brand new function at AMD as the 2 chip firms convey to market a brand new class of processors that speed up AI workloads on PCs. In his function at Intel, Rayfield led improvement of low-power AI applied sciences, together with the neural processing unit, for the chipmaker’s upcoming Core Extremely ‘Meteor Lake’ processors.
AMD has employed an Intel govt who led the event of low-power AI applied sciences for the semiconductor big’s upcoming Core Extremely “Meteor Lake” processors.
John Rayfield was vp and normal supervisor of consumer AI at Intel till this month, when he left to hitch rival AMD as company vp of AI silicon, in line with his LinkedIn profile.
Rayfield didn’t reply to a request for remark. Neither did AMD or Intel.
[Gelsinger: Intel Is Prioritizing AI Sales Enablement For Partners]
Rayfield (pictured) left Intel as each the semiconductor big and his new employer search to compete with a brand new class of consumer processors that speed up AI workloads on PCs, which the 2 firms count on to change into a prime focus for people and organizations alike amid broader hype for generative AI functions.
In December, Intel is about to debut its Core Extremely processors, which the corporate has mentioned will “usher within the age of the AI PC.” As outlined ultimately week’s Intel Innovation occasion, the event of processors that may allow a brand new wave of AI-powered PC functions is a key a part of the chipmaker’s technique transferring ahead.
“We see the AI PC as a sea change second in tech innovation,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger mentioned final week.
Rayfield’s departure comes on the heels of the departure of one other key AI govt, Kavitha Prasad, who left Intel for a place at Amazon Internet Providers. Prasad led Intel’s knowledge heart AI technique till she left in July to change into normal supervisor of the perimeter safety safety enterprise at AWS, CRN reported Monday.
Rayfield’s Purview Included NPU Improvement For Meteor Lake
As the pinnacle of consumer AI at Intel, Rayfield oversaw improvement of {hardware} and software program for low-power AI, in line with a biography on a Microsoft net web page.
His purview included the neural processing unit (NPU) in Intel’s upcoming Core Extremely processors, which have been beforehand identified underneath the Meteor Lake code identify.
The NPU is a part of Intel’s three-prong technique for processing AI workloads with the Core Extremely chips.
Intel mentioned final week that the NPU is a low-power AI engine finest for “sustained AI and AI offload” whereas the chip’s CPU is supposed for offering quick responses in “light-weight, single-inference low-latency AI duties” and the GPU is finest for “AI infused within the media, 3-D functions and the render pipeline.”
Within the spring, Rayfield was a public-facing spokesperson for the Core Extremely processors and Intel’s AI PC technique, which supposes that organizations will wish to more and more transfer AI workloads from the cloud to private computer systems to decrease prices, enhance safety and cut back latency.
“What we’re seeing is there’s heaps and plenty of causes emigrate extra of this throughout to the consumer, which is a very totally different compute mannequin,” he mentioned in a Might Intel video.
Rayfield turned normal supervisor of consumer AI in June of final yr, however he had been main improvement of the NPU earlier than then for practically two years when it was referenced because the VPU, which beforehand stood for imaginative and prescient processing unit. Intel’s VPU know-how got here from its 2016 acquisition of Movidius, and it was initially designed for pc imaginative and prescient functions in edge units.
Previous to becoming a member of Intel as normal supervisor of VPU mental property in November 2020, Rayfield was CTO at British chip designer Creativeness Applied sciences for a bit of over a yr.
In line with his bio on Microsoft’s web site, Rayfield “has been concerned in AI accelerator improvement for a number of years” and in low-power compute applied sciences for many of his profession.
AMD Beat Intel To Market With Chips For AI PCs
Rayfield is becoming a member of AMD as the corporate strikes ahead with its personal AI PC technique, which kicked off earlier this yr with the launch of the chip designer’s Ryzen 7040 sequence processors for laptops.
The processors every embody an AI engine that’s designed to allow “accelerated multitasking, elevated productiveness and effectivity and superior collaboration,” in line with AMD’s web site. Improvement of the AI engine originated from AMD’s $49 billion acquisition of Xilinx final yr.
“I feel there are a selection of areas that we count on to play a reasonably key function in actually defining a brand new set of person experiences over the following 12 to 18 months,” mentioned Matt Unangst, senior director of AMD’s industrial consumer and workstation enterprise, in an interview with CRN final month.
One vital software AMD plans to speed up with its Ryzen AI know-how is Microsoft Copilot, the $30-per-user, per-month add-on that brings quite a lot of generative AI capabilities to Home windows 11 and Microsoft 365. Copilot can even benefit from Intel’s upcoming Core Extremely chips, Intel mentioned final week.
“There will probably be a good portion of Microsoft Copilot that may and can benefit from our Ryzen AI know-how,” Unangst mentioned.
Dylan Martin
