外媒：Facebook或进军AI芯片领域，正在组建团队

来源：内容来自腾讯科技，谢谢。

4月19日消息，据相关岗位招聘信息以及知情人士透露的消息，作为社交网络巨头的Facebook正在打造专业团队，以打造属于该公司自己的芯片，此举进一步表明，科技公司都竞相为自己提供芯片，并减少他们对诸如英特尔和高通之类芯片制造商的依赖。

据Facebook网站的招聘信息，该公司正在招聘一位经理以打造“端对端的SoC片上系统/ASIC是专用集成电路、固件和驱动程序开发组织”。不过，从这一招聘信息来看，Facebook打造自主芯片的计划仍然处于初步阶段。

Facebook将由此与其他科技巨头一样，奋力开发自己的芯片。2010年，苹果开始推出自主芯片，如今这些芯片应用到该公司旗下的诸多重要产品线之中。另外，Alphabet旗下的谷歌公司也已研发出自己的人工智能芯片。

Facebook或许可以使用自己的芯片来支持公司各个数据中心的硬件设备、人工智能软件和服务等。按照当前的计划，下个月，Facebook就将推出售价200美元的单机版虚拟现实头盔Oculus Go，这一头盔搭载了高通芯片。此外，Facebook还在研发一系列智能音箱。Facebook未来的各版本智能音箱可能会因为定制芯片组的置入而大大提升功能。通过使用自主芯片，Facebook公司还将能够更好地控制产品研发程序，而且还将能够更好地融合软件与硬件。

目前，Facebook仍拒绝对上述求职信息置评。

片上系统（SOC）是一种半导体，包含了几个分立式的元件，这些元件集成在一个硅片上。这种片上系统主要应用在移动设备之中，其空间和省电特征具有更高的价值。另外，诸多智能手机的功能就是由SOC提供。

应用集成电路（ASIC），是一款旨在针对一小部分特定目的的芯片，这种芯片在运转特定软件时的速度往往最快而且最有效。

从招聘信息来看，Facebook的芯片主要将用作人工智能相关的产品之中。

周三，Facebook首席人工智能科学家Yann LeCun通过Twitter发布了招聘职位相关的信息，宣称招聘对设计人工智能芯片感兴趣的人才。

原文：

Facebook Is Forming a Team to Design Its Own Chip

Move follows Apple’s chip efforts, early work by Google

Facebook Inc. is building a team to design its own semiconductors, adding to a trend among technology companies to supply themselves and lower their dependence on chipmakers such as Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., according to job listings and people familiar with the matter.

The social media company is seeking to hire a manager to build an “end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization,” according to a job listing on its corporate website, indicating the effort is still in its early stages.

The Menlo Park, California-based company would join other technology giants tackling the massive effort to develop chips. In 2010, Apple Inc. started shipping its own chips and now uses them across many of its major product lines. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has developed its own artificial intelligence chip as Facebook could use such chips to power hardware devices, artificial intelligence software and servers in its data centers. Next month, the company will launch the Oculus Go, a $200 standalone virtual-reality headset that runs on a Qualcomm processor. Facebook is also working on a slew of smart speakers. Future generations of those devices could be improved by custom chipsets. By using its own processors, the company would have finer control over product development and would be able to better tune its software and hardware together.

Facebook declined to comment on the job postings.

A system on chip, or SOC, is a type of semiconductor that contains several discrete components built into one piece of silicon. They’re typically used in mobile devices where their space and power-saving properties are more valuable. The main functions of most smartphones are provided by SOCs.

An ASIC, or applications specific integrated circuit, is a chip designed for a narrow purpose. Such components are often the fastest or most-efficient at running a particular piece of software. Their weakness is that they’re locked down and may become redundant over time if software and workloads evolve.

The postings didn’t make it clear what kind of use Facebook wants to put the chips to other than the broad umbrella of artificial intelligence. A job listing references “expertise to build custom solutions targeted at multiple verticals including AI/ML,” indicating that the chip work could focus on a processor for artificial intelligence tasks.

Facebook AI researcher Yann LeCun tweeted about some of the job postings on Wednesday, asking for candidates interested in designing chips for AI.well.

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