Frank Ferro

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Frank Ferro is group director for product management at Cadence.

Author's Latest Posts

Accelerating AI/ML Inferencing With GDDR6 DRAM
By Frank Ferro - 10 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

The origins of graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory can be traced to the rise of 3D gaming on PCs and consoles. The first graphics processing units (GPU) packed single data rate (SDR) and double data rate (DDR) DRAM – the same solution used for CPU main memory. As gaming evolved, the demand for higher frame rates at ever higher resolutions drove the need for a graphics-workload specific me... » read more

HBM2E Raises The Bar For AI/ML Training
By Frank Ferro - 11 Mar, 2021 - Comments: 0

The largest AI/ML neural network training models now exceed an enormous 100 billion parameters. With the rate of growth over the last decade on a 10X annual pace, we’re headed to trillion parameter models in the not-too-distant future. Given the tremendous value that can be derived from AI/ML (it is mission critical to five of six of the top market cap companies in the world), there has been ... » read more

GDDR6 Memory For Life On The Edge
By Frank Ferro - 15 Oct, 2020 - Comments: 0

With the torrid growth in data traffic, it is unsurprising that the number of hyperscale data centers has grown apace. According to analysts at the Synergy Research Group, in July of this year there were 541 hyperscale data centers worldwide. That represents a doubling in the number since 2015. Even more striking, there are an additional 176 in the pipeline, so the breakneck growth in hyperscal... » read more

Scaling AI/ML Training Performance With HBM2E Memory
By Frank Ferro - 13 Aug, 2020 - Comments: 0

In my April SemiEngineering Low Power-High Performance blog, I wrote: “Today, AI/ML neural network training models can exceed 10 billion parameters, soon it will be over 100 billion.” “Soon” didn’t take long to arrive. At the end of May, OpenAI unveiled a new 175-billion parameter GPT-3 language model. This represented a more that 100X jump over the size of GPT-2’s 1.5 billion param... » read more

An Expanding Application Space For GDDR6 Memory
By Frank Ferro - 09 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

The origins of graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory can be traced to the rise of 3D gaming on PCs and consoles. The first GPUs used single data rate (SDR) and double data rate (DDR) DRAM, the same memory used for CPU main memory. The quest for higher frame rates at higher resolutions drove the need for a graphics-workload specific memory solution. The commercial success of gaming PCs and con... » read more

2.5D Architecture Answers AI Training’s Call for “All of the Above”
By Frank Ferro - 09 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

The impact of AI/ML grows daily impacting every industry and touching the lives of everyone. In marketing, healthcare, retail, transportation, manufacturing and more, AI/ML is a catalyst for great change. This rapid advance is powerfully illustrated by the growth in AI/ML training capabilities which have since 2012 grown by a factor of 10X every year. Today, AI/ML neural network training mod... » read more

HBM2E Memory: A Perfect Fit For AI/ML Training
By Frank Ferro - 12 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) growth proceeds at a lightning pace. In the past eight years, AI training capabilities have jumped by a factor of 300,000 (10X annually), driving rapid improvements in every aspect of computing hardware and software. Memory bandwidth is one such critical area of focus enabling the continued growth of AI. Introduced in 2013, High Bandwidth Memo... » read more

GDDR6 Pushes The Memory Envelope For AI And ADAS
By Frank Ferro - 14 Nov, 2019 - Comments: 0

Memory bandwidth is an ever-increasing critical bottleneck for a wide range of use cases and applications. These include artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), as well as 5G wireless and wireline infrastructure. In addition to memory bottlenecks, the above-mentioned use cases and applications are rapidly hitting the real-world limits of t... » read more

GDDR Accelerates Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning
By Frank Ferro - 16 Jul, 2019 - Comments: 0

The origins of modern graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory can be traced back to GDDR3 SDRAM. Designed by ATI Technologies, GDDR3 made its first appearance in NVidia’s GeForce FX 5700 Ultra card which debuted in 2004. Offering reduced latency and high bandwidth for GPUs, GDDR3 was followed by GDDR4, GDDR5, GDDR5X and the latest generation of GDDR memory, GDDR6. GDDR6 SGRAM supports a ma... » read more

GDDR6 And HBM2: Signal Integrity Challenges For AI
By Frank Ferro - 11 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

In a nutshell, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing list of applications demand a considerably large amount of bandwidth to push bits in and out of memory at the highest speeds possible. AI has been getting a lot of industry attention, and certainly it’s not a new phenomenon because it’s been gaining even greater traction in the last year or two. This is especially true since a n... » read more

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