Industry Expert Blogs

Frank Ferro, Senior Director Product Management at Rambus, and Shane Rau, Senior Research Executive at IDC, recently hosted a webinar that explores the role of tailored DRAM solutions in advancing artificial intelligence. In part one of this four-part series, Ferro and Rau discuss a wide range of topics including the interconnected system landscape, the impact of COVID-19 on the data center, and how AI is helping to make sense of the data deluge.

The Interconnected System Landscape

According to Rau, the internet is “segmenting” with the advent of ubiquitous communications: cellular and Wi-Fi.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve built ubiquitous communications across different system types with interconnected servers and data centers,” he explains. “For interconnected data centers, we have the cloud connecting through communications infrastructure to PCs, phones, and tablets, but also through edge infrastructure to IoT systems. What we used to call embedded systems are now IoT systems and even cars.”

According to Rau, there is now a landscape of interconnected systems. This means data – and the computing of that data – can be located anywhere across this broad landscape.

“The opportunity for AI – and by extension semiconductors – is vast across the internet system landscape,” he elaborates. “Even when you look at the relatively new segments of the landscape, those would be IoT, and the edge infrastructure systems that bring computing power closer to both IoT and endpoints. The opportunity there is newer, but also growing significantly. And indeed collectively, the revenue for all of those microcontrollers and microprocessors that are running AI – the opportunity at the endpoints and in the edge infrastructure – is more than it is in the traditional data center and cloud.”

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