Nvidia CEO and AMD CEO: Two influential figures in the AI chip industry and also relatives from Taiwan.

The close relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su was first mentioned by Ms. Su in 2020 during an event by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). “We are distant relatives,” she revealed.

Recently, genealogist Jean Wu from Taiwan also revealed details about the two individuals based on a series of administrative documents showing that Jensen Huang is a cousin of Lisa Su. Both leaders have not commented on the information, but a spokesperson from Nvidia confirmed that Mr. Huang is a distant relative of Ms. Su.

A Similar Path

The familial relationship between Jensen Huang and Lisa Su has attracted attention from industry analysts in the semiconductor field.

“I was truly surprised,” said Wu about her discovery.

Christopher Miller, author of the book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, also expressed surprise at the revelation that the leaders of Nvidia and AMD are relatives. “The fact that these two individuals with shared family roots in Taiwan are at the forefront of the semiconductor industry is remarkable,” he said.

According to Edith Yeung, a partner at the venture capital firm Race Capital in Silicon Valley, Taiwan is developing world-class computer hardware to drive its economy. Companies such as TSMC, Asus, Acer, and Foxconn are leading the industry, encouraging many young people to pursue careers as technology engineers.

“For nearly 50 years, the economy in Taiwan has revolved around the production of electronic devices, as well as chip design, manufacturing, and assembly. Semiconductors are the largest export sector here, attracting many young individuals to pursue careers in this field,” Miller explained. Jensen Huang and Lisa Su are no exception, although they mostly grew up abroad.

Huang was born in 1963 in Taipei before moving to Tainan. His family relocated to Thailand when his father worked at an oil refinery. When Huang was 9 years old, political unrest in Thailand led his parents to send him and his brother to live with relatives in Washington state, United States. He later attended boarding school in Kentucky.

Lisa Su was born in Tainan in 1969. Her family immigrated to the United States three years later and settled in New York.

Despite growing up in different places, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su share a common career path. They both pursued electrical engineering, with Su attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Huang studying at the University of Oregon and Stanford University.

They entered the semiconductor industry and both had stints at AMD. Huang worked as a microprocessor designer at the company before founding Nvidia in 1993. Su joined AMD nearly 20 years later and held high-level executive positions, earning praise for revitalizing the company.

From relatives to rivals

Now, both are high-level technology leaders. Their offices are located in Santa Clara, California, just a 5-minute drive apart.

Nvidia and AMD both sell hardware and software to leading technology companies, participating in an industry that could reach $1 trillion by 2030. In their latest annual report, AMD considers Nvidia as a top competitor in two out of four major business areas, which are data centers and gaming devices.

Nvidia and AMD are both renowned for their graphics processing units (GPUs) specialized in image processing for gaming. GPUs now also play a significant role in the AI race, a technology closely associated with popular products like ChatGPT.

Nvidia’s H100 chip is used by OpenAI to train the language model for ChatGPT, while AMD has also released the MI300X series, which they call “the world’s most advanced AI inference processor.” On October 31st, AMD stated that their GPUs could generate revenue of over $2 billion in 2024, emphasizing that the MI300 is projected to be the “fastest $1 billion revenue-generating product in the company’s history.”

Both companies also compete in the data center product market, including CPUs and data processing units (DPUs).

In recent years, Nvidia and AMD have been recognized for bringing cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to reshape society. Their processors are increasingly prevalent in electric vehicles and AI systems, in addition to traditional markets like personal computers and gaming consoles.

“Anyone who connects to the internet may need dozens or even hundreds of Nvidia and AMD chips. Most users don’t pay attention because they never see the chips produced by these two companies. However, the daily lives of many people rely on chips from both companies,” said Miller.

The AI boom has significantly boosted Nvidia’s value, with the company’s stock rising by 208% this year. AMD’s stock has also increased by 73%, despite the company being much smaller in scale compared to Nvidia.

Lisa Su is currently one of the highest-paid executives in the United States and topped the list of highest-paid female CEOs in the S&P 500 index last year. She has praised Nvidia as a “great company” when asked about her family relationship with Huang.

“They both possess leading technologies in key AI areas over the past 10 years. It is a competitive world, and there is no doubt that we compete fiercely, but it is also a world where we have to collaborate with our counterparts,” said the CEO of AMD.

According to SCMP, Chinese scientists have successfully developed a chip that is both faster and significantly more energy-efficient compared to current AI chips when performing certain tasks such as image recognition and autonomous driving. While the new product cannot immediately replace the chips currently used in devices like computers or smartphones, it is expected to be applied in wearable devices, electric cars, or smart factories in the near future.

The new chip, called the Electronic and Photonic Integrated Circuit (ACCEL), is based on light and utilizes photon particles for computation and information transmission. It achieves a computing speed of 4.6 PFLOPS, which is over 3,000 times faster than one of the most widely used commercial AI chips, Nvidia’s A100. According to SCMP, the China chip also consumes less energy, approximately 4 million times less.

“The chip’s performance can be further optimized through improvements or the application of costly manufacturing processes,” said an expert representative.

Unlike semiconductor chips, quantum chips leverage the physical properties of light and offer higher efficiency. “Deploying quantum computing systems used to be a challenge due to complex structural design, susceptibility to noise, and system errors. The team has creatively introduced a framework that combines quantum and electronic computing,” Tsinghua’s website states, noting that the use of light significantly increases energy efficiency. Furthermore, “the energy required to operate existing chips for one hour could power the ACCEL chip for over 500 years,” according to SCMP.

However, the new chip is limited in its ability to handle specific tasks. It also cannot run multiple different programs or compress files like conventional computing chips.

According to Tsinghua’s website, the tasks that the new chip can perform include high-resolution image recognition, computation under low-light conditions, and traffic flow identification. It also has certain advantages when performing tasks related to AI vision because passive light from the environment enables direct computation during the sensing process.

According to SCMP, the project is funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. MakeSens, a chip design company based in Beijing and co-founded by one of the researchers involved in the project, is also involved in chip development. The company recently launched a low-power chip utilizing similar computing techniques in May.

“Developing a new computing architecture for the AI era is a remarkable achievement. However, a more significant challenge lies in real-world applications, addressing the significant needs of the nation and the community. That is our responsibility,” said Dai Qionghai, one of the co-leaders of the research group.

Currently, the research team has not yet answered questions regarding the commercial prospects of this chip.

Source: SCMP

Read more: AI generation – a new battleground in phone chip design.

In addition to its distinctive design, HP Spectre X360 also has several other noteworthy features such as an OLED display, versatile usability, and intelligent support functions

Although being a laptop brand targeting working professionals and business users with a simple “office” design, HP still offers products with innovative and unconventional designs, as exemplified by the HP Spectre X360 we have here.

As the name suggests, this is a laptop with a 360-degree hinge that allows for versatile usage compared to conventional laptops.

However, the highlight of the design of this laptop does not solely come from its flexible hinge, but rather from its build quality and small decorative details. The device is crafted from metal, providing a solid and premium feel, with some diamond-cut accents to enhance its elegance. The new HP logo has also been redesigned into a simple vertical strip style, fitting well with the overall aesthetic of this machine.

In other 360-degree convertible laptops, the hinge mechanism is often made small and tucked away to minimize its visibility. However, in the case of the Spectre X360, the hinge is actually a prominent component that enhances the overall appearance of the device. It is meticulously crafted and finished, adding to the overall aesthetic appeal of the laptop.

The particular design aspect that I want to mention is located on the two sides of the laptop. Near the point of contact with the display, the two halves of the Spectre X360 appear to be “carved out” to accommodate the USB-C ports and the 3.5mm audio/microphone jack. This is a distinctive design feature of the Spectre series, creating a recognizable difference when looking at this laptop.

Additionally, the Spectre X360 features an additional USB-C port and a USB-A port. This provides a standard port configuration for a laptop that boasts a slim and lightweight design. It is commendable that the laptop retains a traditional USB-A port for connecting peripherals such as a mouse or printer. The device measures 1.69cm in thickness and weighs 1.4kg, although it may not win any awards for being the thinnest or lightest, it still offers good portability with its 13.5-inch screen size.

Indeed, the newer generations of HP laptops like the Spectre X360 have upgraded the touchpad with a larger size, providing a more comfortable user experience compared to smaller, flatter touchpads used in the past. The increased surface area allows for smoother and more precise cursor control, making it easier to navigate and interact with the laptop.

On the keyboard, there is a fingerprint sensor that enables fast login using Windows Hello

HP Spectre X360 features a 13.5-inch multitouch OLED display with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 and a brightness of 400 nits. As you have mentioned, this display has an aspect ratio of 3:2, which is taller compared to the conventional 16:9 aspect ratio. This aspect ratio allows for more content to be displayed on the screen and is considered suitable for office applications and productivity tasks.

Correct, the 2023 version of the Spectre X360 features an Intel Core i5-1335U CPU and an Intel Iris Xe Graphics GPU. It is equipped with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe Gen4 SSD. Due to its thin design, the RAM in the laptop is soldered and cannot be upgraded in the future.

HP Spectre X360 is targeted towards office professionals who have moderate computing needs. It is suitable for tasks such as light photo and video editing, as well as running office applications. These individuals also desire a slim and lightweight machine with an elegant design. However, for those with heavier workloads that demand higher specifications, they will certainly need to consider workstation laptops or gaming laptops with powerful CPUs and dedicated GPUs.