Saturday, May 6th 2023

AMD's Dr. Lisa Su Thinks That Moore's Law is Still Relevant - Innovation Will Keep Legacy Going

Barron's Magazine has been on a technology industry kick this week and published their interview with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su on May 3. The interviewer asks Su about her views on Moore's Law and it becomes apparent that she remains a believer of Gordon Moore's (more than half-century old) prediction - Moore, an Intel co-founder passed away in late March. Su explains that her company's engineers will need to innovate in order to carry on with that legacy: "I would certainly say I don't think Moore's Law is dead. I think Moore's Law has slowed down. We have to do different things to continue to get that performance and that energy efficiency. We've done chiplets - that's been one big step. We've now done 3-D packaging. We think there are a number of other innovations, as well." Expertise in other areas is also key in hitting technological goals: "Software and algorithms are also quite important. I think you need all of these pieces for us to continue this performance trajectory that we've all been on."

When asked about the challenges involved in advancing CPU designs within limitations, Su responds with: "Yes. The transistor costs and the amount of improvement you're getting from density and overall energy reduction is less from each generation. But we're still moving (forward) generation to generation. We're doing plenty of work in 3 nanometer today, and we're looking beyond that to 2 nm as well. But we'll continue to use chiplets and these type of constructions to try to get around some of the Moore's Law challenges." AMD and Intel continue to hold firm with Moore's Law, even though slightly younger upstarts disagree (see NVIDIA). Dr. Lisa Su's latest thoughts stay consistent with her colleague's past statements - AMD CTO Mark Papermaster reckoned that the theory is pertinent for another six to eight years, although it could be a costly endeavor for AMD - the company believes that it cannot double transistor density every 18 to 24 months without incurring extra expenses.
Sources: Barron's Magazine, Wccftech
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36 Comments on AMD's Dr. Lisa Su Thinks That Moore's Law is Still Relevant - Innovation Will Keep Legacy Going

#26
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
R-T-BLaw and theory are just words. They have no meaning outside of their applicable fields, and Moore never proposed his law to be a natural one, only a commercial prediction. People here are abusing that definition with gusto.

Any stock market "law" is not the same as a natural law and everyone should know that.

Also, scientific theories are signifigantly more grounded then that of any commercial prediction. Don't give Moore's law that kind of credibility, it really shows you have no understanding of what you are saying.
Condenscending much?

I already know it is not a Law, I just wanted to know who said it was a law to begin with. When I wrote the word theory it's technically an opinion. Hence the point about not having 10GHz CPUs, lighten up.
Posted on Reply
#27
R-T-B
eidairaman1Condenscending much?
Not trying to be, just saying how it looks. I'm not trying to judge only educate. Sorry, I can see how I did word it to sound a bit condescending. Not intended. Anyone who really didn't know need not be ashamed, as now is always the time to learn.
Posted on Reply
#28
Wye
Once a manager gets past a certain threshold in their career level, they stop saying actual information.
They just say senseless politically correct crap that everyone expects/agrees.
Tech will innovate.
Potatoes will potate.
Alligators will alligate.
Posted on Reply
#29
Dr. Dro
Vayra86Nice story & theory.

Practice - 65~55% profit margins


It's not only a story but 16.19% net margin seems fair, and look at the significant slump in the recent year. That's no doubt due to crypto stopping being a thing and Ada's high manufacturing costs piled on top.

Said margin must cover driver development costs and hardware R&D, as well as pay operating costs and company dividends, so it doesn't look too awful from where I'm standing. They are a for-profit, after all.
Posted on Reply
#30
Wirko
R-T-BAnyone who thought a commercial thing like moores law was an actual law of nature needs to retake high school science.

Thankfully, I don't think many here were confused on that point.
Oh, and I thought it was a law of the kind that lawyers feed on. You obey it, or you're huang!
Posted on Reply
#31
R-T-B
WyeOnce a manager gets past a certain threshold in their career level, they stop saying actual information.
They just say senseless politically correct crap that everyone expects/agrees.
Tech will innovate.
Potatoes will potate.
Alligators will alligate.
Not sure that applies here. Moores law was stated at a time when these things were far from established. It ended up being mostly correct, probably because he sort of had inside ties into this industry.
Posted on Reply
#32
mechtech
TumbleGeorgeI disagree. Humans are a natural product. From a philosophical point of view, nature uses us to create development that cannot happen directly. We are only working tools.
Did someone say philosophy??


:)
Posted on Reply
#33
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
I'm sure that Lisa Su knows that if they can stack SRAM for cache, that they can stack other things as well. Density is, after all, a measurement of mass per unit volume in 3d space, not area in 2d space.
Posted on Reply
#34
Luminescent
What she is not saying is that as long as TSMC keeps pulling a rabbit out of a hat they can keep having significant performance jumps, when that stops then moore's law is dead.
Important tech companies are so dependent on TSMC that US is willing to go to war with China is they touch Taiwan.
Remember, there is no iphone without TSMC, no AMD, no power efficient RTX 4000 and so on...
Posted on Reply
#35
64K
Lisa Su is a very smart woman and adept in business. She has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT. That alone is a hell of an accomplishment. She has earned my respect with what she has brought to AMD. I was watching AMD years ago when they were swirling down the toilet bowl financially and amazingly under her leadership she has turned AMD from a train wreck into a thriving financially successful enterprise.

One of the brightest minds in the Tech World today imo.
Posted on Reply
#36
JAB Creations
DemonicRyzen666"Moore's Law" was never a law.
It's a theory.
Too many outliers to be a classified as a "true law".
It's a "pseudo law" excepted by the tech as a real law.
Fifth comment is what it took for there to be something worth reading in the comments. Thank you.
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