negativeonehalf

9 ms·

1.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Meanwhile Google has already used AI for this exact stage of chip design with AlphaChip: https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/how-alphachip-transfor... And they've responded to the absurd degree of skepticis
2.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
> Nature doesn't exactly have an stellar track record ensuring Google's results are verifiable ... https://retractionwatch.com/2024/05/14/nature-earns-ire-over ... They open-sourced AlphaFold-3 a
3.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
The "whistleblower"'s admission that he "did not have evidence to support his suspicion of fraud" is pretty damning. He fails to meet a much, much lower bar than direct observation -- he admitted he had no evidence
4.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Update: Synopsys disavowed Markov's paper: "Regarding the CACM article that Igor Markov's comments and writings do not represent Synopsys views or opinions in any way. Synopsys is also aligned with you on the potential of Rei
5.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Unfortunately, there aren't publicly available benchmarks for modern technology node sizes, at least not that I'm aware of. Kahng compared on 45nm and 12nm chips, which are very different from a physical design perspective from th
6.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
There's a lot of... passionate discussion in this thread, but we shouldn't lose sight of the big picture -- Google has used AlphaChip in multiple generations of TPU, their flagship AI accelerator. This is a multi-billion dollar pr
7.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Unfortunately, commercial EDA companies generally have restrictive licensing agreements that prohibit direct public comparison. Still, the fact that Google uses it for TPU is pretty telling - this is a multi-billion dollar, mission-critical
8.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
[flagged]
9.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
See this ISPD 2022 paper where the AlphaChip authors dive more into the value of pre-training (Figure 7, Figure 8): https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3505170.3511478
10.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
In the blog post, they announce MediaTek's widespread usage, the deployment in multiple generations of TPU with increasing performance each generation, Axion, etc. Chips designed with the help of AlphaChip are in datacenters and Samsun
11.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
For a more thorough discussion on pre-training, see this ISPD 2022 paper by the AlphaChip people: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3505170.3511478 As for external usage of the method - MediaTek is one of th
12.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
You are now using multiple new accounts based on the name of one of the authors (Anna Goldie) and her husband (Gabriel). First this one ('gabegobblegoldi'), and then 'anna-gabriella'. I think it is time for you to take a
13.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
See their ISPD 2022 paper, which goes into more detail about the value of pre-training (e.g. Figure 7): https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3505170.3511478 Sometimes training from scratch is able to match the
14.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
The quick-start guide in the repo that said you don't have to pre-train for the sample test case, meaning that you can validate your setup without pre-training. That does not mean you don't need to pre-train! Again, the paper talk
15.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
They optimize using a fast heuristic based on wirelength, congestion, and density, but they evaluate with full P&R. It is definitely interesting that they get good timing without explicitly including it in their reward function!
16.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
The Nature paper describes the importance of pre-training repeatedly. The ability to learn from experience is the whole point of the method. Pre-training is just training and saving the weights -- this is ML 101. I'm glad you agree tha
17.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
The original paper reports P&R metrics (WNS, TNS, area, power, wirelength, horizontal congestion, vertical congestion) - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03544-w (no paywall): https://www.cl.ca
18.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
For AlphaChip, pre-training is just training. You train, and save the weights in between. This has always been supported by the Google's open-source repository. I've read Kahng's FAQ, and he fails to address this, which is un
19.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Prior to AlphaChip, macro placement was done manually by human engineers in any production setting. Prior algorithmic methods especially struggled to manage congestion, resulting in chips that weren't manufacturable.
20.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Definitely a big part of it. Chips enable better EDA tools, which enable better chips. First it was analytic solvers and simulated annealing, now ML. Exciting times!
21.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
FD: I have been following this whole thing for a while, and know personally a number of the people involved. The AlphaChip authors address criticism in their addendum, and in a prior statement from the co-lead authors: https://ww
22.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
6% is just the latest one - this is a real-deal engineering task in the chip design process, that an AI can do better than a human expert, and the gap is growing with time. I'm sure there's a limit, but we don't know what it
23.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Chips are the limiting factor for AI, and now we have AIs making chips better than human engineers. This feels like an infinite compute cheat code, or at least a way to get us very, very quickly to the physical optimum.
24.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Wow, thank you! I've been wanting to learn about GPUs on my next flight, and this is the perfect material for that.
25.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
I am saying that we should not destroy a major source of prosperity. Targeted advertising is far more effective than untargeted because it lets you show ads to people who might have any interest in what you're selling.
26.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Targeted advertising is a good thing. It lets people who make stuff more efficiently connect with people who want that stuff. The FTC chair is complaining that companies "monetize that data to the tune of billions of dollars a year,&qu
27.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Pouring one out for Pivotal Tracker. This was an outstanding ticket tracking and project management system, way ahead of its time. Back when I did contract software engineering, Pivotal Tracker made managing client relationships a breeze by
28.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
OK, also don't stand near Hamas fighters when they flagrantly violate international law and fight from designated humanitarian zones. (Obviously, voting in Hamas was a huge mistake, but Palestinians probably didn't expect Hamas to
29.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
'U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. called for a "full accounting" of the attacks to Congress to determine "whether any US assistance went into the development or deployment of this technology."' Are th
30.
by negativeonehalf 2y ago
Link? I haven't seen anything about cars/bikes - maybe there were Hezbollah radios inside them?

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