AMD announced today the acquisition of Enosemi, a provider of chiplets, design IP and custom silicon for silicon photonics product development.
AMD said the two companies have collaborated on photonics development projects, and this acquisition extends that relationship. “Now as part of AMD, the team will help us immediately scale our ability to support and develop a variety of photonics and co-packaged optics solutions across next-gen AI systems,” AMD said in blog.
Enosemi photonics technology addresses connectivity, computing, sensing, medical devices, and biotechnology.
“The elite team of experts and PhD-level talent at Enosemi, based in Silicon Valley, has a proven track record of building and shipping photonic integrated circuits in volume, a unique feat that few select teams have accomplished,” AMD said. “Their depth of experience, technical rigor, and track record of execution make them an ideal fit for AMD as we push deeper into high-performance interconnect innovation.”
Optical interconnects have the potential to address the need for faster, more efficient data movement as AI models grow larger and more complex. Co-packaged optics could deliver higher bandwidth density and better power efficiency than traditional approaches, “representing a transformative step in system architecture where tighter integration between compute and networking is enabled to support the performance and scale that advanced AI workloads require,” AMD said.
AMD said the Enosemi acquisition builds the company’s portfolio to address AI needs, from foundational silicon to systems-level integration. This includes the acquisition of FPGA company Xilinx, adding data movement and networking capabilities through Pensando, adding to its software team with the additions of Silo AI and Mipsology, and scaling rack-level system design with the acquisition of ZT Systems.
“As we look ahead, the demands of AI systems will require not just powerful chips, but full-stack innovation across compute, networking, systems architecture, software and more,” the company said. “AMD is uniquely positioned to deliver across this stack, bringing together our industry-leading CPUs, GPUs, and adaptive SoCs with deep networking, software, and system integration expertise.”
