Evolution of GPUs and Semiconductor Chip Design

The chapter explores the evolution of GPUs from graphics processors to powerful AI units, discussing NVIDIA's success in the semiconductor industry. It delves into the strategic decisions of providing GPUs for free to researchers, the challenges of chip design in research labs, and the technological advancements in chip training and inferencing. The conversation also touches on the dominance of HBM components, the trend towards larger chips for better performance, and the specialized chip designs of companies like NVIDIA, Grock, and Cerebice.

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The most important trend powering AI is semiconductors and that trend is not slowing down anytime soon. We need to understand what is happening at the semiconductor level to be able to project forward what we think will occur in AI. This episode is the best way to learn what’s ahead of semis.

Doug O’Laughlin is the first 2nd time guest on Software Snack Bites! He is the Founder of Fabricated Knowledge which is one of the fastest growing and highest grossing newsletters out there. The reason for that is because each of his write-ups is packed with insights that even a layperson can understand. We did this podcast right before Nvidia GTC so you’ll have to read Fabricated Knowledge to get Doug’s takes on the new announcements. In this podcast we talk about the inference specific chips (Groq & Cerebras), why HBM (high bandwidth memory) is so important to the future semi story, Nvidia’s current dominant strategy and why they are well positioned to continue winning, where ASICs and Broadcom fit in, and some other trends outside of semis Doug is watching.

If you had listened to Doug’s episode last year, you would be up 250% on Nvidia. If you had read his writing, you would be up even more. Additionally, if you read his writing on Intel, you would have had a 65% gain in < 6 months.

Of course, this is not investment advice, do your own research, but Doug’s knowledge will at least help you figure out where to start your diligence. There are multiple links below with terminology discussed and Doug’s free articles on certain topics. The best way to support him is to subscribe to Fabricated Knowledge.

Where to Find Doug:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougolaughlin/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoolAllTheTime

* Semiconductor Publication: https://www.fabricatedknowledge.com

Where to Find Shomik:

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/shomikghosh21

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shomik-ghosh-a5a71319/

* Software Snack Bites Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google.

In this episode, we cover:

(02:06) – Why GPUs & CUDA are So Important to LLMs

(03:58) – Why GPUs Are More Specialized Than We Think

(06:47) – The Incentive for AI Teams to Stay with Nvidia