AMD is harnessing the power of open source with the acquisition of Nod.ai, which has developed a portfolio of tools and systems to drive the deployment of AI applications on enterprise hardware.
Nvidia’s Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) software has become the industry standard for GPU workloads, but AMD hopes to challenge this dominance with its own open source alternatives.
CUDA is closed source, while AMD’s use of software such as Radeon Open Compute (ROC) – and now Nod.ai platforms, including its SHARK software – presents an alternative means for companies to optimize the implementation of CUDA. the AI.
Nvidia vs AMD is the new Windows vs Linux
The ten-year-old company, which was recently valued at $36.5 million, creates and develops optimization software that can run on the best Ryzen chips, including EPYC CPUs, Radeon GPUs, and Versal processors. This makes it a perfect fit, as the company integrates directly into AMD’s operations in hopes of taking the fight to Nvidia.
AMD will absorb the Nod.ai team as part of the acquisition, cementing the company’s goal of strengthening its software portfolio.
In fact, although Nvidia is known as a form of hardware (and the industry leader for providing GPUs for AI workloads), its software (particularly CUDA along with its optimized libraries) reinforces its superiority.
“The acquisition of Nod.ai is expected to significantly enhance our ability to provide AI customers with open software that allows them to easily deploy high-performance AI models tailored to AMD hardware,” said Vamsi Boppana, senior vice president of AI at AMD.
“The addition of the talented Nod.ai team accelerates our ability to advance open source build technology and enable high-performance, wearable AI solutions across AMD’s product portfolio.”
By adopting Nod.ai and incorporating its tools into its broader portfolio, AMD is choosing an approach that means its fight with Nvidia is similar in nature to the rivalry between Linux and Windows. While Linux follows an iterative and collaborative development cycle, Windows remains Microsoft’s proprietary operating system.
