Source: Semiconductor Industry Watch. At yesterday's Conputex conference, Dr. Lisa Su released the latest roadmap. Afterwards, foreign media morethanmoore released the content of Lisa Su's post-conference interview, which we have translated and summarized as follows: Q: How does AI help you personally in your work? A: AI affects everyone's life. Personally, I am a loyal user of GPT and Co-Pilot. I am very interested in the AI used internally by AMD. We often talk about customer AI, but we also prioritize AI because it can make our company better. For example, making better and faster chips, we hope to integrate AI into the development process, as well as marketing, sales, human resources and all other fields. AI will be ubiquitous. Q: NVIDIA has explicitly stated to investors that it plans to shorten the development cycle to once a year, and now AMD also plans to do so. How and why do you do this? A: This is what we see in the market. AI is our company's top priority. We fully utilize the development capabilities of the entire company and increase investment. There are new changes every year, as the market needs updated products and more features. The product portfolio can solve various workloads. Not all customers will use all products, but there will be a new trend every year, and it will be the most competitive. This involves investment, ensuring that hardware/software systems are part of it, and we are committed to making it (AI) our biggest strategic opportunity. Q: The number of TOPs in PC World - Strix Point (Ryzen AI 300) has increased significantly. TOPs cost money. How do you compare TOPs to CPU/GPU? A: Nothing is free! Especially in designs where power and cost are limited. What we see is that AI will be ubiquitous. Currently, CoPilot+ PC and Strix have more than 50 TOPs and will start at the top of the stack. But it (AI) will run through our entire product stack. At the high-end, we will expand TOPs because we believe that the more local TOPs, the stronger the AIPC function, and putting it on the chip will increase its value and help unload part of the computing from the cloud. Q: Last week, you said that AMD will produce 3nm chips using GAA. Samsung foundry is the only one that produces 3nm GAA. Will AMD choose Samsung foundry for this? A: Refer to last week's keynote address at imec. What we talked about is that AMD will always use the most advanced technology. We will use 3nm. We will use 2nm. We did not mention the supplier of 3nm or GAA. Our cooperation with TSMC is currently very strong-we talked about the 3nm products we are currently developing. Q: Regarding sustainability issues. AI means more power consumption. As a chip supplier, is it possible to optimize the power consumption of devices that use AI? A: For everything we do, especially for AI, energy efficiency is as important as performance. We are studying how to improve energy efficiency in every generation of products in the future-we have said that we will improve energy efficiency by 30 times between 2020 and 2025, and we are expected to exceed this goal. Our current goal is to increase energy efficiency by 100 times in the next 4-5 years. So yes, we can focus on energy efficiency, and we must focus on energy efficiency because it will become a limiting factor for future computing. Q: We had CPUs before, then GPUs, now we have NPUs. First, how do you see the scalability of NPUs? Second, what is the next big chip? Neuromorphic chip? A: You need the right engine for each workload. CPUs are very suitable for traditional workloads. GPUs are very suitable for gaming and graphics tasks. NPUs help achieve AI-specific acceleration. As we move forward and research specific new acceleration technologies, we will see some of these technologies evolve-but ultimately it is driven by applications. Q: You initially broke Intel's status quo by increasing the number of cores. But the number of cores of your generations of products (in the consumer aspect) has reached its peak. Is this enough for consumers and the gaming market? Or should we expect an increase in the number of cores in the future? A: I think our strategy is to continuously improve performance. Especially for games, game software developers do not always use all cores. We have no reason not to adopt more than 16 cores. The key is that our development speed allows software developers to and can actually utilize these cores. Q: Regarding desktops, do you think more efficient NPU accelerators are needed? A: We see that NPUs have an impact on desktops. We have been evaluating product segments that can use this function. You will see desktop products with NPUs in the future to expand our product portfolio.

$Apple (AAPL.US)$ The ambitious plan is to manufacture internal components for its devices, including switching to self-developed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Connection Chips starting next year, replacing some parts currently provided by $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$the company.

According to insiders, this chip, codenamed Proxima, has been in development for several years and is currently planned to be integrated into the first batch of products in 2025. Like Apple's other internal chips, Proxima will be partnered with $Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$ Production.

This transformation is highly anticipated by Apple.$Qualcomm (QCOM.US)$The company's cellular modem transformation is unrelated, but these two parts will ultimately work together.

According to informed sources, Apple's goal is to develop an end-to-end wireless solution that integrates closely with other components and is more energy-efficient. Because the plan has not been made public, the sources requested anonymity. Representatives from Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, and Broadcom, based in Palo Alto, California, declined to comment.

Apple is one of Broadcom's largest customers, accounting for about 20% of its revenue.

These two new components mark a significant breakthrough for Apple's Hardware technology department. The team is led by Senior Vice President Johny Srouji, who previously developed the main processors for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.

Now, Apple will control how devices connect to cellular networks and Wi-Fi hubs, which has long been dominated by other chip manufacturers. This should enable better control over the user experience and pave the way for new device formats, such as thinner iPhones and wearable technology.

Apple will begin to launch a combination Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, as part of new home devices scheduled to be released next year, including updated versions of its Television Set-Top Box and HomePod mini Smart Speaker. It also plans to introduce the component for the iPhone later next year, and for the iPad and Mac before 2026. Bloomberg first reported on the new chip's plans in January 2023.

According to Bloomberg, while this move will replace Broadcom's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination components in Apple devices, the supplier will still provide a part known as a modem RF filter. According to The Information, Apple is also collaborating with Broadcom to develop the next generation Cloud Computing Service chip.

The Proxima chip is not Apple's first foray into the wireless realm. The company has long designed custom wireless components for AirPods and Apple Watch. However, adopting such critical components in its most important products—iPhone, iPad, and Mac—carries risks for Apple.

The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips ensure that Apple devices can connect to the Internet via wireless networks and pair with peripherals like headphones and speakers. These are key parts of the Apple experience, and any issues are likely to be noticed by customers.

Broadcom is a leader in the wireless components market, and Apple may not be able to compete with the company's capabilities with its first-generation Wi-Fi chip. However, insiders say that the component will support the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard, which provides better bandwidth and higher speeds.

With Apple's self-developed wireless chips in smart home devices, these products will work more seamlessly together and may synchronize data faster. The company plans to significantly advance Smart Home development next year, aiming to launch a home hub device featuring AI, which can be placed on a table or installed on a wall.

The company has also been developing its own independent security camera that can pair with other home devices.

Editor/Rocky