On Tuesday, Intel announced the acquisition of Siru innovations, a Finnish graphics computing startup. The startup mainly focuses on GPU IP and software development services. All employees of Siru innovations will join Intel's accelerated computing system and graphics (axg) division.
GPU is the image processing chip in the graphics card and the "heart" of the graphics card. It is also suitable for Artificial Intelligence Computing, data center and other applications. This acquisition may enhance Intel's strength in games, high-performance computing, edge computing and other fields.
Mika tuomi and Mikko alho, CO founders of Siru innovations, have decades of experience in the industry. Mika tuomi once founded what is known as "Finland amd ". After bitboys was acquired by ATI, Mika tuomi and Mikko alho worked with the team in industry leaders such as ATI, AMD and Qualcomm. Siru innovations official website said that the company has an in-depth understanding of computer graphics and has designed, implemented and verified the main GPU architecture for customers. Its official website mentioned that due to the team's previous experience in developing GPU in Qualcomm and AMD, its GPU IP has the advantage of low power consumption.
Recently, Intel has made continuous moves in the field of graphics computing. Alchemist SOC, the core of consumer GPU, was launched on the architecture day in August last year, and arc (Ruixuan) series independent graphics cards based on it were officially launched at the end of March. Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger also revealed that its desktop GPU will be launched in the second quarter of this year.
The founder once founded bitboys and worked for Qualcomm and AMD
Mika tuomi, one of the co founders of Siru innovations, is very senior and was one of the chief coders of the Finnish legend demonstration group future crew in the 1990s. The group is famous for real-time demonstrations and has released the first PC demonstration scene of Four Channel Sound Blaster music.
In 1991, Mika tuomi and some partners in the demo group founded bitboys. The company started developing software for local companies and then began designing 3D graphics chips.
Bitboys once led the desktop GPU and turned to [mobile phone] around 2000( ) Graphics chip was acquired by GPU manufacturer ATI for us $44.5 million in 2006. Since ATI was soon acquired by AMD, the bitboys team in Finland is called "amd Finland".
In 2009, amd sold its mobile division, including the bitboys team, to Qualcomm for $65 million, which led to the birth of Qualcomm Finland. The Department created the Adreno GPU product line, which is used in today's Qualcomm snapdragon SOC. Mika tuomi also works in Qualcomm and other companies due to the change of bitboys team.
The CEO of Siru innovations and another co-founder is Mikko alho. He studied for a master's degree in computer science at Tampere University of technology in Finland, and then stayed as a research assistant and lecturer.
▲ Mikko alho, co-founder and CEO of Siru innovations
In 2004, Mikko alho served as hardware design engineer and project manager at bitboys. After ATI was acquired by AMD, Mikko alho also entered AMD and continued to be responsible for the customer integration project of graphics IP in Europe, and integrated graphics solutions such as Z160 and z430 into the customer platform.
After joining Qualcomm, Mikko alho is the GPU project leader of Qualcomm Finland, responsible for the planning and resource allocation of hardware projects. In 2011, Mikko alho and Mika tuomi, who also worked for bitboys, Qualcomm and other companies, founded Siru innovations.
Siru team is called key GPU talents, and will build advanced graphics IP
On Tuesday, Intel graphics card official twitter announced the introduction of Finnish startup Siru innovations into Intel graphics card team, saying that the team has decades of experience in developing graphics IP and software services and will help (Intel) support its customers in Maas / ADAS (travel as a service / advanced driving assistance system), games, super large-scale data centers and other fields.
Balaji kanigicherla, vice president of Intel and general manager of axg division, explained in more detail on LinkedIn. He mentioned that Mikko alho and the entire Siru innovations team would join Intel.
Balaji kanigicherla stressed that the addition of Siru innovations has added key GPU talents to Intel. Its professional scope covers architecture, software, modeling and hardware implementation, and will support Intel's pursuit of leading graphics IP.
It will jointly promote axg business unit to promote customized chips / platforms and solutions in the fields of blockchain, metauniverse, high-performance edge computing and super large-scale data center. Balaji kanigicherla also mentioned that this represents an important opportunity in the coming years.
Mikko alho replied and confirmed that Siru innovations has become a member of Intel. He said that joining Intel proved the team's deep expertise in customizing GPU IP and was glad to see what to accomplish with Balaji kanigicherla and other members of axg.
Intel graphics card again, desktop GPU is expected to be released in the second quarter
Intel invested in the field of graphics computing as early as the 1970s, and launched a series of independent graphics cards around 2000. After that, its main focus is on the integrated graphics card and the core graphics card. However, Intel has not given up the independent graphics card.
Recently, when answering questions about graphics card products, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said that its arc desktop GPU will be launched in the second quarter of this year.
Intel's integrated display can be traced back to the first generation of core processor in 2010. The core code of the product is Clarkdale, which encapsulates the CPU and GPU on the same substrate, and its core display is named Intel HD graphics.
In 2017, Intel recruited Raja koduri, a chip giant from AMD, established the core and visual computing group business unit, specializing in independent graphics cards, and began to develop the "x ᵉ" architecture. Intel announced that it will better handle high-performance tasks such as artificial intelligence, graphics processing and machine learning by serving clients, data centers and high-performance computing.
▲ Intel graphics card product roadmap
Three years later, Intel launched the commercial independent display iris x ᵉ Max based on X ᵉ - LP microarchitecture, announcing its return to the independent display field. In 2021, Anton kaplanyan, the great God of graphics technology and former chief scientist of Facebook reality labs, jumped to Intel and joined Intel in the research and development of deep learning super sampling technology.
In March this year, Intel officially released arc series independent graphics cards for laptops.
▲ arc Series graphics card parameters
This series of graphics cards includes three series: 3, 5 and 7, which locate mainstream games, performance games and hard core games respectively. The a370m of arc 3 series will be equipped with 8 x ᵉ cores and 8 ray tracing units, while the a350m will be equipped with 6 x ᵉ cores and 6 ray tracing units.
In contrast, the arc 5 series has 16 x ᵉ cores and 16 ray tracing units; The arc 7 series will contain up to 32 x ᵉ cores and 32 ray tracing units.
In addition to alchemist SOC's graphics card, its Intel client graphics card based on Xe HPG architecture also includes battlemage, cellular and Druid series. Next, Intel will launch a desktop independent graphics card in the second quarter of this year.
Conclusion: does the chip giant launch new GPU market or usher in new competition
Compared with CPU, GPU has great advantages in parallel computing. It is the key to provide computing power in graphics processing, artificial intelligence and other fields. Recently, due to the expansion of global chip supply capacity and the decline of cryptocurrency price, the previously high GPU price is falling.
As market demand slows down, industry leaders and start-ups are accelerating their layout and launching new products and structures. In March this year, not only did NVIDIA, the leader of GPU, release the latest hopper architecture, Intel launched arc graphics card for notebook computers, but also Moore thread, a domestic GPU startup, released the first GPU SUDI and the first desktop graphics card and server products.
In this case, Intel's acquisition of Finnish GPU IP start-ups and overweight the field of GPU and graphics cards may mean that the competition between chip giants and start-ups will continue to intensify.