STORY · PRODUKTER_
AMD acquires Taalas to boost AI inference performance by etching models into silicon
AMD has acquired AI chipstartup Taalas, which specializes in model-specific integrated circuits (MSIC) where model weights are etched directly into silicon instead of being stored in HBM. Taalas' first chip HC1 achieved 16,960 tokens per second for Llama 3.1 8B – 48 times faster than Nvidia GPUs – and the company plans an HC2 version supporting up to 20 billion parameters.
WHY IT MATTERS
This is a strategic move by AMD to challenge Nvidia's dominance in AI hardware and offers dramatically improved inference performance for specific models, though it comes with the limitation that chips become locked to one model per design.
SOURCES
MACHINE-GENERATED SUMMARY This summary is written by machine from the sources below. We sort and explain — but we are a way into the field, not the final word. Check the source when something matters to you.