This is Part 2 of our "Learning About The Semiconductor Industry" series. Our goal for 2023 is to study the semiconductor industry so that by the end of the year we will have a solid understanding of semiconductors, the business models of companies in the field, and the politics surrounding the industry.
Last week we defined some of the terms mentioned in the podcast episodes "Inside the Battle for Chips That Will Power Artificial Intelligence" by Bloomberg's Odd Lots and "Can Intel bounce back?" by Financial Times' Behind the Money.
This week we will define some of the additional terms mentioned in the episodes. A few of the definitions in this post include terms that were discussed in last week's post.
Disclaimer: The videos below do not belong to us. The creators are mentioned in each video.
AI Specific Accelerators for Inference: Hardware that specializes in speeding up the training process of neural networks.
Architecture: The way different parts of a computer system is designed to interact with each other.
Artificial General Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence that has the same capacity to learn as humans.
Gartner Hype Cycle: A chart that shows where a new technology is located in its life cycle. The life cycle begins with Innovation Trigger, which is when the technology is first introduced, and people expect the technology to change its industry. The cycle ends with Plateau of Productivity, which is when the technology becomes mainstream, and people understand the realistic capabilities of the technology.
Hyperscaler: A large scale company like Amazon, Microsoft, or Google that provides massive data storage and computing power services to large customers. The hyperscaler can adjust the capacity they provide based on their customers' needs.
PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index (SOX): An index that tracks the performance of the top 30 companies in the semiconductor industry.
RISC-V (Pronounced RISC-Five): RISC means "reduced instruction set computer" and "V" represents the 5th generation. The RISC-V structure has computer instructions that are simpler and faster to process. RISC-V is also open source, so users don't have to pay a licensing fee.
Turing Test: A test created by Alan Turing to measure the intelligence of a computer. A computer passes the Turing Test if it can have a seamless conversation with a human, and the human does not realize they are speaking with a computer.
CONCLUSION
These are the terms that I am able to define from the two episodes. I did not define some terms like 8 & 16 bit floating points, quantization, and captive silicon because I did not understand the explanations that I found. I need to study them some more.
Everywhere I turn people are discussing semiconductors and artificial intelligence. God willing, by the end of this year, we will be able to intelligently participate in the conversation.
Stay strong, stay blessed, and God willing, I will see you next week.
“A wise man is strong, Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength;”
Proverbs 24:5 NKJV
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