AMD to acquire edge computing startup Pensando for $1.9B

humbug · 4 Apr 2022 at 14:39

With the $35B Xilinx acquisition now done AMD are shopping again....

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3820305-amd-to-acquire-edge-computing-startup-pensando-for-19b

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) has agreed to acquire edge computing startup Pensando for ~$1.9B.
The transaction is conditional upon customary closing conditions including approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. It is expected to close in Q2 2022.
The deal will help expand AMD's data center solutions capabilities.
Pensando's distributed services platform comprises a high-performance, fully programmable packet processor and comprehensive software stack that accelerate networking, security, storage and other services for cloud, enterprise and edge applications. Its solutions are said to deliver between 8x and 13x greater performance compared to competitive solutions.
As part of the acquisition, Pensando CEO Prem Jain and the team will join AMD as part of the Data Center Solutions Group, led by AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager Forrest Norrod.
Commenting on the deal, AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su said, "Today, with our acquisition of Pensando, we add a leading distributed services platform to our high-performance CPU, GPU, FPGA and adaptive SoC portfolio. The Pensando team brings world-class expertise and a proven track record of innovation at the chip, software and platform level which expands our ability to offer leadership solutions for our cloud, enterprise and edge customers."

TNA · 5 Apr 2022 at 19:17

They need to be careful they don’t end up like they did when they purchased ATI, worth less than what they paid for themselves after a few years. Lol.

humbug · 5 Apr 2022 at 21:22

TNA said:
They need to be careful they don’t end up like they did when they purchased ATI, worth less than what they paid for themselves after a few years. Lol.

AMD spent their last $5.9B on acquiring ATI, after the Intel shenanigans its what saved them, at least for long enough to get back in the game, today they are a much more rounded company for it, they have enough buying power to secure their future growth, its what they are doing, i said when they acquired Xilinx AMD would not be done with that, and they ain't done yet

TNA · 5 Apr 2022 at 21:33

humbug said:
AMD spent their last $5.9B on acquiring ATI, after the Intel shenanigans its what saved them, at least for long enough to get back in the game, today they are a much more rounded company for it, they have enough buying power to secure their future growth, its what they are doing, i said when they acquired Xilinx AMD would not be done with that, and they ain't done yet

True, I was just messin anyway. Lisa is on fire

humbug · 5 Apr 2022 at 21:35

She is a damned good CEO.

Chuk_Chuk · 5 Apr 2022 at 21:55

It is interesting that there acquisitions so far, have both been in the data centre industry and unreleated to the consumer sector. This Pensando company appears to be a software company for use in data dentres, so I wonder if they are trying to be more vertical to offer a complete solution to certain customers. It is a good way to diversify their income.

AMD since you got more cash to splash, my wish list is that you improve HIP and get more cosy with content creators and the software they use.

LePhuronn · 12 Apr 2022 at 15:52

Chuk_Chuk said:
...been in the data centre industry and unrelated to the consumer sector.

Not necessarily. Isn't a major part of Xilinix's tech based around interconnects? The FPGAs themselves may not have much bearing on the consumer market, but AMD's designs since Zen 2 heavily lean on Infinity Fabric and the APUs are starting to get more complex, so I can see Xilinix's experience with interconnects and SoCs significantly bolstering AMD's plans going forward.

humbug · 12 Apr 2022 at 16:44

LePhuronn said:
Not necessarily. Isn't a major part of Xilinix's tech based around interconnects? The FPGAs themselves may not have much bearing on the consumer market, but AMD's designs since Zen 2 heavily lean on Infinity Fabric and the APUs are starting to get more complex, so I can see Xilinix's experience with interconnects and SoCs significantly bolstering AMD's plans going forward.

FPGAs are programmable post production, if Zen 5 has a couple of FPGAs on it AMD could program them through software similar to what you get with AMD GPU's, in that software you could have profile buttons that are pre-programmed by AMD though software updates, you could have a profile for Handbreak, Photoshop, Blender, even Cinebench or specific profiles for physics and / or Ray Tracing in games, with a click of said profile one of the FPGAs on the Zen 5 CPU becomes an ASIC greatly improving performance for the given profile task, so if you have a Zen 5 CPU you could get a big boost in Ray Tracing performance in Battlefield 6, after you're done with that you go back in to the software and click the profile for Davinci Resolve and greatly improve the encoding performance of the BF6 gameplay video you're editing.

humbug · 12 Apr 2022 at 17:01

The Xilinx acquisition was the largest semiconductor purchase in history, they didn't do it for their experience with interconnects, Infinity Fabric is as good as it gets in X86, its better, way better than Intel's Emib.

They did it because they want complete control of Xilinx FPGAs, which are also the best in the industry, and their software programmers.

LePhuronn · 12 Apr 2022 at 17:11

I never said Xilinix was purely for their interconnects, it was merely an example of how Xilinix knowledge could be applied to the consumer market since Chuck_Chuck's viewpoint was that purely of datacentre.

humbug · 12 Apr 2022 at 17:24

I think its both, Xilinx will give AMD a leg up in data centre, but AMD want techology advancement and market share growth right across their entire operation so if you can find a use case for it in retail they will exploit it, and they will look for it.

Look at the 5800X3D, the 3D cache is for hyper scaling in data centre, that is what they were intended and designed for, they are Milan-X chips, but it also gives a good boost in gaming performance and for one more feather in AMD's cap they made retail chips out of them too.

I've given an example how FPGAs could be used in your gaming rig, the trouble is no one who makes FPGA's, successfully, has had any backing from someone who holds an X86 license, which is a hard wall for expansion, so this benefits both Xilinx and AMD.

Vulture · 12 Apr 2022 at 19:36

humbug said:
The Xilinx acquisition was the largest semiconductor purchase in history, they didn't do it for their experience with interconnects, Infinity Fabric is as good as it gets in X86, its better, way better than Intel's Emib.

They did it because they want complete control of Xilinx FPGAs, which are also the best in the industry, and their software programmers.

it’s a thing they need to focus on a little more, Xilinx have good talent pool so i hope they will use it.

Dave2150 · 12 Apr 2022 at 21:55

Good to see AMD investing and making acquisitions. With Intel's release schedule of late, plus planned process roadmaps, AMD need to fire on all cylinders to stand a chance.

Vulture · 12 Apr 2022 at 22:41

Dave2150 said:
Good to see AMD investing and making acquisitions. With Intel's release schedule of late, plus planned process roadmaps, AMD need to fire on all cylinders to stand a chance.

Intel isn't known for reliable planned process roadmaps, and AMD is the king of inovation, first MCM-chiplet design, now 3dcache, with 2 years old architecture they compete with competition newest product, and now with Xilinx and pensando they will be even stronger, i'm pretty confident in AMD future, while Intel is very fragmented, big but inefficient, they spend too much time and money on marketing and spitting on competition.

humbug · 12 Apr 2022 at 22:55

AMD's problem used to be they didn't know what direction to go in and were extremely risk averse, this from interviewing AMD insiders.

What Lisa did was give the company focus and she 'retired' the risk averse from the company, one might even say 'purged' them. Today AMD know exactly what its intention is with razor sharp focus and they use high risk innovation to get there.

jigger · 13 Apr 2022 at 09:34

TNA said:
They need to be careful they don’t end up like they did when they purchased ATI, worth less than what they paid for themselves after a few years. Lol.

AMD was going to buy Nvidia. AMD whipped ATI into shape pretty well. The recent formation of the Radeon Technology Group has pushed “ATI” to become a market leader.

I don’t know about Pensando, but AMD have made some pretty shrewd investments in its future recently and that is reflected in its share performance. I wouldn’t be too concerned for AMD, they are in very good shape.

TNA · 13 Apr 2022 at 10:21

jigger said:
AMD was going to buy Nvidia. AMD whipped ATI into shape pretty well. The recent formation of the Radeon Technology Group has pushed “ATI” to become a market leader.

I don’t know about Pensando, but AMD have made some pretty shrewd investments in its future recently and that is reflected in its share performance. I wouldn’t be too concerned for AMD, they are in very good shape.

?

jigger · 13 Apr 2022 at 10:24

TNA said:
?

TLDR, ATI was a smart purchase for AMD. Now, when AMD come to selling that is a different story…

TNA · 13 Apr 2022 at 12:10

jigger said:
TLDR, ATI was a smart purchase for AMD. Now, when AMD come to selling that is a different story…

I was just pulling humbugs leg. Did you not read like two more comments down before replying?

HACO · 13 Apr 2022 at 17:12

humbug said:
FPGAs are programmable post production, if Zen 5 has a couple of FPGAs on it AMD could program them through software similar to what you get with AMD GPU's, in that software you could have profile buttons that are pre-programmed by AMD though software updates, you could have a profile for Handbreak, Photoshop, Blender, even Cinebench or specific profiles for physics and / or Ray Tracing in games, with a click of said profile one of the FPGAs on the Zen 5 CPU becomes an ASIC greatly improving performance for the given profile task, so if you have a Zen 5 CPU you could get a big boost in Ray Tracing performance in Battlefield 6, after you're done with that you go back in to the software and click the profile for Davinci Resolve and greatly improve the encoding performance of the BF6 gameplay video you're editing.

Not how any of these stuff actually work.

humbug said:
I think its both, Xilinx will give AMD a leg up in data centre, but AMD want techology advancement and market share growth right across their entire operation so if you can find a use case for it in retail they will exploit it, and they will look for it.

Look at the 5800X3D, the 3D cache is for hyper scaling in data centre, that is what they were intended and designed for, they are Milan-X chips, but it also gives a good boost in gaming performance and for one more feather in AMD's cap they made retail chips out of them too.

I've given an example how FPGAs could be used in your gaming rig, the trouble is no one who makes FPGA's, successfully, has had any backing from someone who holds an X86 license, which is a hard wall for expansion, so this benefits both Xilinx and AMD.

Intel is the world's second largest player in the FPGA market, with about 35% of the market. Pretty sure they have an X86 license

Time to come back to reality humbug

AMD's acquisition of Xilinx is awesome but these are just fantasy.