By Tom Abate
Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms. But efforts to build AI-capable chips for mobile devices have so far hit a wall – the so-called “memory wall” that separates data processing and memory chips that must work together to meet the massive and continually growing computational demands imposed by AI.
Hardware and software innovations give eight chips the illusion that they’re one mega-chip working together to run AI. (Image credit: Stocksy / Drea Sullivan)
“Transactions between processors and memory can consume 95 percent of the energy needed to do machine learning and AI, and that severely limits battery life,” said computer scientist Subhasish Mitra, senior author of a new study published in
Intel’s rivals may get a boost if it decides to outsource some of its manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor, said Citigroup. But that isn’t a guarantee.
Salesforce (CRM), alas, might not be the best way to play it.
Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin on Monday cut his rating on Salesforce to Neutral from Overweight, while keeping his $242 price target.
His view is that this “hungry hippo” needs time to digest two of its largest acquisitions: the $15.7 billion deal for Tableau in 2019 and the pending $27.7 billion takeover of
Slack Technologies (WORK). He notes that the amount of stock issued in the two deals combined increases the number of shares outstanding by 194 million or about 24% of the total outstanding before the Tableau deal. He thinks that all the extra stock creates “a more challenging setup” for Salesforce in 2021.