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Facebook To Design Its Own Processors For Hardware Devices, AI Software, and Servers (bloomberg.com)

Facebook is the latest technology company to design its own semiconductors, reports Bloomberg. "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." From the report: 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. 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.

56 comments

  1. Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What Zuckerberg really wants to do is bake spyware right into the CPU so it can collect data on you in a totally unimpeachable, nigh-unto undetectable way.
    DO NOT WANT.

    1. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It'll have a second feed for Cambridge Analytica.

    2. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they are already doing that. I tried using a PC with wireshark and promiscous mode Ethernet adapter to do a man-in-the-middle snoop on my smart-TV. Couldn't find any internet traffic even though Youtube was streaming through the cables.

    3. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel already does that

    4. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you’re doing it wrong. I’m easily able to snoop such traffic from my smart TV or an AppleTV.

    5. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What Zuckerberg really wants to do is bake spyware right into the CPU so it can collect data on you in a totally unimpeachable, nigh-unto undetectable way.

      DO NOT WANT.

      Mark might be unhappy that only Intel and NSA can watch us jerk off while using our devices.. so he wants to get in on the action by making processors with his own spyware baked in... Maybe he wants to go all in on the peep perv road he began when he launched facebook!

    6. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your switch is using ARP to send packets directly to the TV. None of the packets are ending up at your PC to sniff them.

    7. Re:Baked-in spyware by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Maybe it has a unique set of circuitry that robocalls all single women on Sugermountain's behalf. After all, that is what FB was invented for.

    8. Re:Baked-in spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use a PC with two network adapters. Set it up to be a switch (linux can do that) then position it between the TV and the router. You should now see all the traffic. Make sure you sniff on the ip level - they may use protocols that are neither tcp nor udp.

  2. Fuck facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tracking hardware coming to your home soon!

  3. The Process that steals your identity by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    Well, knowing Facebook, it will be the processor that steals everything about you and markets it at an ever faster rate.

    1. Re:The Process that steals your identity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2048 cores 1 process

  4. Maybe Zuckerberg could go to work for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the Winklevoss Hardware Company and steal some of their designs..

  5. 87+Million⦠by ElitistWhiner · · Score: 1

    NOW could care less what FB says, does or
    Testifies

  6. The vacuum that steals your identity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook developing a better vacuum than Hoover.

    1. Re:The vacuum that steals your identity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      and this new vacuum can suck on my balls

    2. Re:The vacuum that steals your identity by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      They're developing the vacuum from J. Edgar Hoover's wet dreams.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Facebook 2.0: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our software does not spy on you!

    But the hardware does.

  8. Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wish I had tons of money to throw away on dumb ideas

  9. Watching the watchers by theCat · · Score: 1

    I wonder if all this is a reaction to the Chinese building so many chips for US domestic consumption, and that process coming under scrutiny as a security threat as well as due to IP theft and corporate espionage. Huawei just today got out of the US networking space because of US gov warnings against buying their kit on national security grounds, but the same should eventually apply to buying chips and chipsets fabbed in China.

    Controlling your chip design is a good first step toward making sure there is nothing in there you didn't want. The next step of course is fabbing that chip yourself under highly controlled conditions. You keep your initial design direction under your hat, and you have some confidence that nothing else was introduced somewhere in the burn-to-silicon steps.

    That particular shit storm has been brewing for a decade. Part of the faster-better-stronger globalist narrative that supported off-shoring of critical industrial and IP practices may be beginning to fall apart.

    --
    =^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
    1. Re:Watching the watchers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I used to wonder how the high tech firms trust their confidential designs to their Chinese subsidiaries or contractors when the Chinese are know for knock offs, and when is well known that everyone in China works for the government (as in, the government can and does coerce citizens to complying with "national security" requests to spy on us) and their government is not our friend.

      Don't have to wonder anymore. They did it out of foolishness and the national price is that we accelerated China's development. We won't get anything in return and the cheap products weren't worth it.

    2. Re:Watching the watchers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but the last thing we 'need' is a bunch of chips made by social-media megacorps (FaceFuuk, Google, et al) or any more trash from Amazon to help them utterly destroy the retail industry while renting out your behavioral profile.

    3. Re:Watching the watchers by ghoul · · Score: 1

      China has offered US and European Chipmakers 1 Trillion dollars in Govt matching funds if they set up a chip design ecosystem in Shanghai. Everyone is scrabbling for these funds by setting up their own Chip shops. Its the new .com boom. Doesnt matter if you have a working chip as long as you can get the matching funds and exit

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
  10. Hire a WHAT to design??? by magarity · · Score: 4, Funny

    seeking to hire a manager to build an 'end-to-end SoC/ASIC

    lolz - Good luck; the vast majority of managers top out at building powerpoint presentations.

    1. Re:Hire a WHAT to design??? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 0

      But acronyms are strong in this one.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:Hire a WHAT to design??? by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      " the vast majority of managers top out at building powerpoint presentations"

      Hardware engineering is 50% powerpoint, therefore engineering managers come from the top 50% of engineers.

  11. They didn't even hire the guy yet!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And yet you say they will build a CPU... this is bullshit news!

  12. Oculus Go by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 0

    After sufficient "donations" to various congress-critters, the Oculus Go will become mandatory for everyone. Along with a permanent wireless link to Facebook, it also attaches permanently to the skull and cannot be removed.

    --
    Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
  13. Solving the wrong problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They're solving the wrong problem. How about: "How to fix a broken PR image"?

    1. Re:Solving the wrong problem by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I think they're already at cutting their losses in that branch. With good reason. They won't get anyone back who finally understood what they're doing, and they're not gonna lose anyone anymore who even now didn't get a clue.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  14. Seeking advanced chip designers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must have absolutely no sense of morality or ethics. Top dollar paid!

  15. They sure sound chastened.

  16. Mark Zukerberg is an Ugly Jewface Nigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck his greedy, privacy-invading jewbag ways. Exactly the kind of meek faggot who wants a bitchy cunt or an [equally ugly] minority as president, so they take away your rights while enriching themselves. They believe mudpeople and ugly progressives with their wonky-faced asian wives should make all the rules

    1. Re:Mark Zukerberg is an Ugly Jewface Nigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the input, Mr. Goebbels.

    2. Re:Mark Zukerberg is an Ugly Jewface Nigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool story, Bubba. Go back to plowing the dogs around your trailer park like a true member of the “master race.”

  17. Trust by sit1963nz · · Score: 2

    I Trust Huawei far more than I trust Facebook.

    1. Re:Trust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I Trust Huawei far more than I trust Facebook.

      Yep, Huawei is only going to give the Info to China, who probably won't resell it, since they can't admit they have it..

      With Facebook, there seems far fewer limits...

  18. Not for the public ; a response to TPU by Guybrush_T · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This seems like an answer to Google's TPU. Nothing like a general purpose CPU they'd want to sell to anyone, more like a dedicated piece of hardware to accelerate ultra common deep learning workloads (like, image recognition).

    Just like Google, Facebook has to process immense volumes of images. GPUs are much more efficient at doing that than CPUs, but so there is still a bit of room for improvement when doing very specific tasks.

    1. Re:Not for the public ; a response to TPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then why not buy/acqui-hire any one of the many startups building this kind of thing?

    2. Re:Not for the public ; a response to TPU by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Then why not buy/acqui-hire any one of the many startups building this kind of thing?

      It is cheaper to just start their own project, and headhunt the skills from the startups, or from Google.

      Designing something like the TPU is not difficult. It is basically just a slimmed down power-efficient GPU without the G. Just lots of parallel 8-bit multipliers repeated across the die over and over.

      My prediction: Within 5 years, every new cell phone will have a built in dedicated matrix multiplication engine for AI.

  19. Ads on the silicon level by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ads on the silicon level

    Man, just think about the endless possibilities...

  20. End-to-end control of the user experience by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    This might be the scariest thing yet.

    Maybe, at last, it is a strong enough reason for even the "sheeple" to finally walk away from this hideous data miner.

    Nah...who am I kidding.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  21. As someone who owned a Huawei Phone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of the early Android 2.x phones, I can say I trusted them far more than their competitors. Said phone had a qualcomm chip with locked baseband firmware (which was mostly/all Qualcomm reference code.) plus a mostly reference linux kernel. There was no actual firmware locking so any image could be reflashed onto the phone and the recovery mode, while dangeorus if out of your physical possession, could reflash the entire partition at any time.

    I got years of service out of that phone even with some big drops and other abuses and it was still usable strictly as a phone/texting platform when the 2g migration forced an upgrade.

    I miss that phone.

  22. Is this really really naive? by Sqreater · · Score: 1

    Or am I naive in thinking that this is really really hard to do and is bound to fail expensively?

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.
  23. Re:Facebook fatigue, stage VII by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 2

    "The seventh stage of Facebook fatigue is being reduce to pressing ^V to post the same BIG DATA SLURPEE IN THE SKY kneejerk response everyone has already seen 1000 times.

    Now 1001

    --
    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
  24. FB commits suicide. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sinking social media company goes into hardware. Z has always been more lucky than smart.

  25. So unpopular. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they have a success selling their own processors, they will be "unpopular" because the another processors as Intel's, AMD's, Qualcomm's ones are popular and have their software applications.

    The chips x86-64 and arm are actually the popular architectures and had their successes in both parts: the hardware and the software.

    It is very hard for the company to release their own chips lacking the polished software for these chips.

    1. Re:So unpopular. by Z80a · · Score: 1

      Sadly when companies say "they're making their own chips", 99% of the time is just "we're licensing the ARM ipcore, and slapping it together with several other licensed IP techs"

  26. Hubris by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems kind of presumptuous of Facebook to assume they will exist long enough even to finish developing the product, let alone deploy it.

  27. My answer to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just don't buy it. Why reward this company for it's bad behaviour.

  28. DATA EMTIONS CHIP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THEY ARE BUILDING THE EMOTIONS-CHIP, so that ZUCK CAN ALMOST HAVE HUMAN EMOTIONS !

    That's the truth.

  29. Facebook is in for a rude... by Bartles · · Score: 0

    ..awakening. They just aren't that useful anymore.

  30. So... Hardware is the new software? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hardware is hard, like really really hard... Let hardware guys do hardware things unless you want to be a hardware guy...
    Don't be like Microsoft and Intel bringing software problems into hardware....

  31. Spend a Billion to... by hazydave · · Score: 2

    So Facebook will spend a billion to deliver what, exactly... a home internet speaker that will automatically post to Facebook pictures of my dinner, so I don't have to? Detect what TV shows I watch and give me automatic LIKEs for those? Listen to my phone calls and automatically "Friend" those people? Trick the Echo next to it into ordering random crap, so we get rid of it?

    --
    -Dave Haynie
  32. Hello by getmylostloveback · · Score: 1

    Facebook has to process immense volumes of images.