Sustainability is a key consideration in the design, manufacturing and application of processors, reflecting a growing focus on environmental impact in technology.

“We didn’t wait until sustainability became a buzzword to do something about it,” said Jean-Laurent Philippe (pictured), chief technology officer, EMEA, at Intel Corp. “Our first sustainability report … was done, I think, in 1994, so we started a long time ago. We have made big progress. Now, it’s extremely difficult, it takes a lot of energy and will to make it happen. We look at it from all of the perspectives that you can think of.”

Philippe spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight at the HPE Discover Barcelona event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. collaboration, which has a goal to prioritize sustainability in processor design and manufacturing. (* Disclosure below.)

Inference for AI

Processors are designed to minimize energy usage and carbon footprint by working with end users to make applications run more sustainably, according to Philippe. Intel’s 4th Generation Xeon Processor includes integrated artificial intelligence accelerators and other accelerators for improved performance and sustainability.

Edge computing for AI inference is crucial in manufacturing. Inference for AI is done at the edge where the data is needed, especially in manufacturing, to avoid waiting for a data center response. Xeon-based servers at the edge can handle workloads, AI inference and large language model training, while Intel is manufacturing processors on nodes across its entire portfolio, Philippe explained.

“That’s why we know that there will be Xeon-based servers at the edge, and since they are already there, they can do the workload that they are meant for, plus the AI inference,” Philippe said. “They can also do some refinement, or let’s say, fine-tuning of some LLM training, because that’s also something that they can do very well, so that’s brilliant.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE Discover Barcelona event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the HPE Discover Barcelona event. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the main sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE