The internet behemoth has long been known for doing more than just running an online marketplace. The announcement of its newest processor may also be resolving previous issues.
Alibaba, the Chinese internet titan, has hinted that it has developed a processor that addresses a long-standing problem in the chip business. The von Neumann bottleneck is a computer science notion that states that a system’s throughput is directly influenced by its processor’s ability to access memory data. Because of the limitations of bus speeds within a system, CPUs must often wait while data is retrieved from memory. Of course, such pauses are invisible to humans, but they nevertheless represent a speed hurdle for the computer, mainly when performing data-intensive operations like video editing.
Many chip designers have attempted to address the problem by incorporating parallel processing and system caches. Apple, for example, has created its chips, allowing it to create workarounds that combine CPUs and memory on the same silicon. Even though chipsets may be found in smartphones and VR headsets to cars and streaming boxes, the solutions aren’t always practical or cost-effective for all device manufacturers.
Alibaba is often regarded as China’s most serious competitor to Amazon. Alibaba, based in Seattle, does more than run a marketplace with two-day shipping. It also dabbles in a variety of businesses. The Discovery, Adventure, Momentum, and Outlook (DAMO) Academy, which focuses on scientific and technological research, is one of its most important initiatives. According to The Register, Alibaba has teased that a DAMO team has built a chipset to solve the von Neumann architecture problem, which could have far-reaching repercussions. According to numerous Chinese news agencies, the new chip bundles logic and memory components in a three-dimensional design, providing higher data transfer and energy efficiency.
In February 2022, an announcement is expected
Alibaba has not revealed the chip’s specifications, but it is expected to present at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco in February. Several Chinese media sites are also reporting the breakthrough. Of course, if Alibaba successfully develops such a chip, it will very probably find many applications both within its own company and among third-party manufacturers.
While details on the new silicon are still scarce, The Register reports that Alibaba has released details of its Yun on Chip (YoC) technology for IoT devices, which may provide some insight into the company is planning. Even again, as intriguing as the technology seems, it may not be aimed at the general public. Alibaba, like Amazon, has a big cloud computing division that requires a slew of computers to keep most of the internet up and running. It’s possible that Alibaba instals the processor in such computers and then delegates dealing with user devices to others.
Source: The Register
