Intel Looks To Challenge NVIDIA In The AI Sector With A New Chip And An Open System!

In the ever-growing artificial intelligence (AI) sector, AI companies are fighting tooth and nail to lead the way, be that in AI chips, AI-powered tools or platforms to develop AI software.

Even companies engaged in one or two verticals are indulging in the others in an attempt to capture a bigger customer base and further their offerings.

Keeping to this thought, Intel made a few announcements at its Intel Vision 2024 event, that are set to shake up the AI world.

“At Vision 2024, Intel goes all-in on open and more secure enterprise AI with new customers, partners and collaborations across the AI continuum,” read the opening line of a news release published on Intel’s website highlighting the company’s newest offerings to the AI industry.

These new offerings include a new AI chip, an open platform for enterprise AI and open scalable AI solutions, spanning hardware, software, frameworks and tools.

So, what did Intel say? Let’s explore!
 

What Did Intel Say About Its New AI Chip?

 

• As mentioned, the company revealed a set of new products and services at its event including a new AI chip: Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerator.

• As tech companies look for alternative sources for AI chips, Intel’s Gaudi 3 is prepared to spoil them for choice, with an AI chip that is reported to deliver 50% better inference (on average) and 40% better power efficiency (on average) than NVIDIA’s H100, at lower costs.

• The chip is said to bring “a significant leap in performance and productivity for AI training and inference on popular large language models (LLMs) and multimodal models” while powering “AI systems with up to tens of thousands of accelerators connected through the common standard of Ethernet.”

• In comparison to its predecessor, Gaudi 3 offer “4x AI compute for BF16, 1.5x increase in memory bandwidth and 2x networking bandwidth.”

• Intel even announced Gaudi 3’s availability to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), which includes companies such as Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Supermicro.

• According to Intel, “The Intel Gaudi 3 accelerator was purpose-built for high-performance, high-efficiency GenAI compute.”

• Its capabilities include an AI-dedicated compute engine, memory boost for LLM capacity requirements, efficient system scaling for enterprise GenAI, open industry software for developer productivity and the newly introduced Gaudi 3 Peripheral Component Interconnect express (PCIe) add-in card, which will help deliver high efficiency with lower power consumption.

• While the general availability of Intel’s Gaudi 3 accelerators is anticipated for Q3 2024, its availability to OEMs will come in Q2 2024 and the PCIe add-in card will come in Q4 2024.

 

What Did Intel Say About Its AI Solutions?

 

• Intel also spoke about open, scalable AI systems and solutions that span hardware, software, frameworks and tools.

• The idea is to offer a broad, open ecosystem of AI companies to offer solutions tailored to satisfy enterprise specific GenAI needs.

• This includes equipment manufacturers, database providers, systems integrators, software and service providers and more.

• Furthermore, enterprises can use the ecosystem to connect with partners and solutions they know and trust.

• Intel also listed new customers and partners, which included Bharti Airtel, Bosch, CtrlS, IBM, IFF, Infosys, Landing AI, Ola, NAVER, NielsenIQ, Roboflow and Seekr, as well as announcing collaborations with Google Cloud, Thales and Cohesity to enhance cloud operations.

• Ahead of this, Intel announced its intention to create an open platform for enterprise AI, which will be developed in collaboration with Anyscale, Articul8, DataStax, Domino, Hugging Face, KX Systems, MariaDB, MinIO, Qdrant, RedHat, Redis, SAP, VMware, Yellowbrick and Zilliz.

 

What Did Intel Executives Say?

 

• Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, said, “Innovation is advancing at an unprecedented pace, all enabled by silicon – and every company is quickly becoming an AI company.”

• [Contd.] “Intel is bringing AI everywhere across the enterprise, from the PC to the data center to the edge. Our latest Gaudi, Xeon and Core Ultra platforms are delivering a cohesive set of flexible solutions tailored to meet the changing needs of our customers and partners and capitalize on the immense opportunities ahead.”

• Justin Hotard, Intel EVP and GM of the Data Center and AI Group, said, “In the ever-evolving landscape of the AI market, a significant gap persists in the current offerings. Feedback from our customers and the broader market underscores a desire for increased choice. Enterprises weigh considerations such as availability, scalability, performance, cost, and energy efficiency.”

• [Contd.] “Intel Gaudi 3 stands out as the GenAI alternative presenting a compelling combination of price performance, system scalability, and time-to-value advantage.”

Do you think Intel will be able to challenge NVIDIA’s dominance with this move? Do you think this move will help Intel garner a stronger customer base and capture more market share?

Let us know in the comments below!