AMD said it plans to expand Ryzen AI across its lineup, but will look at where it adds the most value.
At CES 2023 AMD announced its dedicated AI engine from Ryzen CPUs, called Ryzen AI. As part of its XDNA AI engine, the Ryzen AI co-processor is an On Die-specific chip that can be used to enhance AI capabilities. AMD says the Ryzen AI engine can drive up to 4 concurrent, multitasking AI streams at the same time, and provide 35% higher responsiveness than a single AI stream.
But there are a few caveats to building a chip with Ryzen AI, the main one being cost and the overall value proposition. In an interview with PCWorld, David McAfee, AMD’s vice president and general manager of the customer access business, said that Ryzen AI is just the beginning of AMD’s artificial intelligence business. CEO Dr. Lisa Su also pledged to make artificial intelligence the company’s top strategic priority.
The first chip to use AMD’s Ryzen AI Engine is the Ryzen 7040 Phoenix mobile processor. But not all Phoenix chips pack a dedicated AI engine, and AMD made that choice for good reason. Using Xilinx IP, these chips can improve the experience of software and systems (such as Windows 11) by providing higher efficiency and better utilization of hardware, rather than simply burdening the CPU and GPU.
In addition, David also said that AMD is already discussing plans to expand its Ryzen AI stack in its Ryzen products. The main barrier to implementing Ryzen AI is cost, and there must be a solid and practical reason to include Ryzen AI on a budget chip or even a desktop. David also raised the possibility of adding Ryzen AI to Threadripper chips with a high core count, but even then, while it could be used for training purposes, it wouldn’t necessarily be used.
With Ryzen AI being used only for Ryzen laptop processors, the natural question is how AMD will start rolling it out to the rest of the CPU lineup. But McAfee said that is also being discussed. Due to the additional cost of manufacturing Ryzen AI cores, AMD is evaluating the added value of Ryzen AI, especially in its budget processors. McAfee said end-user benefits would have to be more concrete before AMD could add Ryzen AI to its low-end mobile Ryzen chips.
