近日,苹果公司正式加入超加速链接联盟(Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium),该组织专注于开发一种名为UALink的新标准,旨在优化连接大型数据中心内不断增长的AI加速器芯片。除了苹果,阿里巴巴和半导体公司新思科技(Synopsys)也是联盟董事会成员。
UALink标准基于开放技术,如AMD的Infinity Fabric,适用于多种类型的芯片,包括图形处理器(GPU)和定制解决方案,以提升AI模型训练、调优及执行的速度。预计首批采用UALink的产品将在接下来几年内推出。
苹果加入UALink联盟正值其加大在基础设施领域的投资,以支持其AI服务套件——苹果智能服务的发展。有消息称,苹果正在开发新的服务器芯片,以提高其AI数据中心的效率。
值得注意的是,超加速链接联盟还吸引了英特尔、AMD、谷歌、亚马逊网络服务(AWS)、微软和Meta等科技巨头的参与。然而,目前最大的AI加速器制造商英伟达尚未加入,这可能是由于英伟达已经拥有自己的专有互联技术NVLink,用于数据中心内部的芯片互连。
苹果智能服务的一些特性曾引起争议。上周,苹果宣布将改进其AI新闻摘要通知功能,此前用户反馈称该功能有时会生成不准确的新闻标题。
Recently, Apple officially joined the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, an organization dedicated to developing a new standard called UALink, which aims to optimize connections between AI accelerator chips in large data centers. Besides Apple, Alibaba and semiconductor company Synopsys are also board members of the consortium.
The UALink standard is based on open technologies such as AMD's Infinity Fabric and is suitable for various types of chips, including GPUs and custom solutions, to enhance the speed of AI model training, tuning, and execution. The first products utilizing UALink are expected to be launched in the coming years.
Apple's entry into the UALink alliance coincides with its increased investment in infrastructure to support its suite of AI services, known as Apple Intelligent Services. Reports suggest that Apple is developing new server chips to improve the efficiency of its AI data centers.
Notably, the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium has also attracted participation from tech giants like Intel, AMD, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Meta. However, the largest manufacturer of AI accelerators, NVIDIA, has not yet joined, likely due to its own proprietary interconnect technology, NVLink, used for chip connections within data center clusters.
Some features of Apple Intelligent Services have been subject to criticism. Last week, Apple announced it would update its AI news summary alert function, following user reports of inaccurate news headlines generated by the feature.