At CES earlier this year, AMD presented a new mini-computer designed to rival NVIDIA’s DGX Spark. Basically, it’s a mini-computer with a large APU for programming artificial intelligence models locally. AMD’s machine differs from NVIDIA’s in its support for Windows systems.
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A big APU with 128 GB LPDDR5X!
In terms of configuration, AMD is featuring a large APU, a Ryzen AI Max 395+. It features a total of 16 cores and 32 threads. The graphics section is substantial for an APU, with an iGPU featuring 40 compute units, or 2,560 stream processors. This is also a graphics architecture optimized for embedded and mobile devices such as laptops and mini-PCs. To give you an idea, the RX 7700, a mid-range desktop graphics card, packs the same number of compute units!
With this, the PC will be able to carry a total of 128 GB of LPDDR5X memory. This unified memory is used both by the processor and the graphics unit.
Physically, we find a compact device covered with grids in the shape of the AMD logo. A customizable RGB border surrounds it all. As for cooling, we’re talking about two side-mounted blower fans blowing on a block of aluminum fins crossed by flat heat pipes coming into contact with the main heating elements.
Windows compatible!
As you’ll have gathered, the role of this machine is to offer an AMD alternative to NVIDIA’s DGX Spark. However, unlike NVIDIA’s DGX Spark, it offers Windows support. In addition, the CPU comes with an NPU that boasts 50 TOPS of computing power in the field of artificial intelligence, while AI models are pre-loaded in the machine and optimized for the aforementioned hardware. The memory configuration should also make it possible to run LLMs with 70 billion parameters without major problems.
However, although the price is still unknown, don’t expect this device to be cheap just because it’s labeled AMD.
