Intel shares future AI strategic roadmap, 2024Q3 will bring Gaudi 3, Falcon Shores will be launched next year

Recently, Intel divulged its strategic roadmap for artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerators, encompassing forthcoming innovations such as the next-generation Gaudi 3 and Falcon Shores. This disclosure illuminates Intel’s methodology for integrating AI across various sectors of enterprise and data center domains through its products and software stacks.

Intel has developed an exhaustive enterprise AI stack, a fusion of hardware and AI applications/software, crafted using open standards like OpenVINO, Intel Developer Cloud oneAPI, & Synapse to foster rapid advancement in hardware, systems, and applications. This hardware is categorized into three branches: data centers (scalable systems, accelerators, CPUs), networks (open standards and configurability, infrastructure), and client and edge (AI PCs, NPUs, GPUs, CPUs).

Historically, Nvidia has been the sole supplier in the market offering high-performance and potent AI accelerators. However, the landscape has shifted somewhat with new solutions prepared by both Intel and AMD. Intel aspires for its products to be recognized as definitive alternatives in the market, establishing a leadership position in specific markets and workloads. For instance, Intel recently demonstrated that Gaudi 2, priced similarly to Nvidia’s A100, offers triple the AI performance and, in certain workloads, surpasses the H100.

Intel positions both Gaudi 3 and Falcon Shores as successor products within the same product line. Gaudi 3 will be manufactured using the 5nm process, has entered laboratory validation, and is slated for a comprehensive market launch in the third quarter of 2024. Falcon Shores, a data center GPU, will feature a multi-chip modular design and incorporate an “expandable I/O design,” with plans for release next year.

A common concern among developers regarding the transition to new hardware is the necessity for extensive code modifications for adaptation. Leveraging Intel’s software solutions, only a few lines of code need to be added to Python scripts to migrate existing or new models. The entire Gaudi series, along with Falcon Shores, will offer migration support, and Intel is currently striving to augment underlying models.

Moreover, Intel has announced that, in full compliance with U.S. regulations, it will launch customized Gaudi series hardware for the Chinese market.