FCLCJan 11, 2024

For the Floating Point nuts amongst us, BFloat16 and its invention* by google is being challenged in a patent dispute.

Ramifications could include sunsetting of Google TPUs, but also the use of Bfloat16 and Bfloat like types in other devices, including:
AMD, Nvidia and Intel GPUs,

Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Apple, Qualcom, Samsung CPUs

General purpose AI accelerators (all of the above + AWS tranium and Inferentia, and dozens of other devices)

Article by @tobiaswrites here: https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/01/10/google_tpu_patent_dispute/

Google's TPUs could end up costing it a billion-plus, thanks to this patent challenge

Singular alleges AI accelerators built from ripped-off blueprints

The Register
Show threadAdrian Jackson
@fclc @tobiaswrites or, as is usual in these cases, payment of money
Jan 11, 2024 at 7:08pmMastodon for Android
Show threadTobias MannJan 11, 2024

@adrianjhpc @fclc

That could be a lot of money. $1.6-$5.19 billion according to Google.

Show threadFCLCJan 11, 2024
@tobiaswrites @adrianjhpc Would also open the floodgates to everyone else that uses Bfloat16 (it's hard to list anyone who doesn't these days).