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rivendellfrostfair · 2 years

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You know when you realise the seeds of something you love now were sown long, long ago.

For example, I love ttrpgs, especially the rp side of it, and I started playing them a few years ago. But I was recently reminded that, between the ages of 13-15, my friends and I made up an entire role playing game (without realising that was what it was) and played it for two solid years, almost every day. It was called The Correspondence and was delightfully over dramatic, as all good teenage stories should be.

It started in what must have been a particularly boring physics class (sorry Dr Speirs) with us passing notes, when my friend Ruth decided to write to us not as herself, but Rupert, Lord Rupert to be specific. So we replied. I believe we drew pictures of socks to send him.

We kept writing replies after class had finished. And the next day. And the next. And so it grew as more and more people were invited into this network of letter writing. We swapped them at lunch and breaktimes, writing them on the bus, at the dinner table or sometimes in class. It's hard to explain just how many letters there were. Some you would never even see because they weren't to you!

We chose our names: Annapurna, Katrina, David, Rupert, Camilla, Brigitta, Helena, Margaritte, Francis - and more I can't remember!

We also chose an era and we became upper class Edwardians. Our grasp of historical accuracy was low, though Katrina became a suffragette and later, when we moved into WWI, a VAD, which fueled us all to do our own research on these amazing historical women.

We did not let reality discourage the drama though. There was a kidnapping at one point, and I still vividly remember writing my own ransom note with glee knowing I would be handing it to my friends in the morning.

Annapurna had an older sister who had been engaged to Rupert, but the sister had died of TB before they could be married. Later Rupert had married Helena but it turned out to be an unhappy marriage, and his son Francis was a disappointment to him. He had an affair with Annapurna, who was secretly living in his hunting lodge at the time. Rupert's twin David had married Brigitta and they'd had like twelve children (there was an extensive family tree so we could keep track of them all). It was all very exciting.

I loved all that world we created as teenagers, I still do. We created a wonderful game, where we could try being someone else for a bit, where we could explore ideas about what relationships were like and push the boundaries of good, and not so good, storytelling.

We kept some of the letters, but there must have been hundreds between us all, scraps of paper, backs of envelopes or pages ripped out of notebooks and many, inevitably were lost to time. Ruth was entrusted with the ones we kept. I hope she still has them somewhere, even though it's been over 14 years now.

It was never about the quality of the paper though - it was all about the words on the page - our characters only ever lived in their own words.

Which is why I think I love ttrpgs. The characters we play exist only in the words that we give them, except they also live deep in our hearts. They take up space there - and we love them.

Today I quietly added to the canon of The Correspondence and drew Annapurna and Rupert. I thought about how much things had changed since then and how much I had changed.

I think, maybe, one day, if I'm feeling bold, these drawings might find themselves in an envelope, flitting through the post, so that they might live briefly again, even if only for the length of time it takes to open a letter.

#ttrpg #ttrpg campaign #dnd #storytelling #stories #how i accidentally created a rpg as a teenager and didnt even realise it #im genuinely proud of what we did though even though im pretty sure everyone else we knew thought we were weird for it #also dont pay too much attention to the hands because we all know how much of a hassle they are to draw if they dont want to

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kaiyves-backup · 9 months

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2023 Reading Wrap-Up:

In 2023, I read 34 books for fun! (My previous record was 20 in 2018.)

25 were nonfiction, 9 were fiction.

10 were by a woman or women (previous record was 8 in 2017), 20 were by a man or men, and 4 were by collaborators of mixed gender.

24 books were by American authors, the rest by non-American authors. (Of those, 3 were by Brits and 2 by New Zealanders.)

Oldest: The Space-Gods Revealed: A Closer Look at the Theories of Erich von Däniken, Ronald Story (1976)

Newest: The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths (2023, the only book I read that actually came out this year, I mostly shop at used bookstores.)

6 were mysteries from the Three Investigators series.

Best: The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World, by Sarah Stewart Johnson. I said in June it probably would be my favorite of 2023 and I stand by that

Other Favorites:

Annapurna: A Woman’s Place, Arlene Blum (1980)

The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, Brad Fox (2023)

Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould (1991)

The Last Great Adventure of Sir Peter Blake: With Seamaster and Blakexpeditions from Antarctica to the Amazon, Peter Blake and Alan Sefton (2003)

Nonstop: Driven by the Sea, Boris Herrmann and various collaborators (2021)

Shuttle, Nigel MacKnight (1985)

Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Sister Planet, David Harry Grinspoon (1997)

Worst: JPL and the American Space Program: A History of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, by Clayton R. Koppes. As I said in my journal, Koppes’ account of the early years of space exploration is “nearly as dry, cold, and devoid of atmosphere as the surface of Mars.” Both my favorite and least favorite books this year were about planetary exploration and the contrast is incredible.

#books #reading

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tomwambsmilk · 1 year

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Hey. Recommend your favorite indie movies rn. I promise ill watch them because i need to watch more indie stuff anyway and i trust your judgment

sooo glad a couple of you took the bait <3

Right off the bat, I'll say that the line between indie and not is a bit blurry and malleable, so I'm defining it as movies that didn't have the backing of a major US studio. That said, there's debate over whether A24 and Annapurna count as major or indie studios. So ultimately, to split the difference, I've settled on 7 "true" indies, one A24 picture, one that's kind of an indie but also not for reasons I'll get into, and one that's not an indie at all but people still don't watch it because it's old so I'm going to take this opportunity to stump for it.

Leave No Trace (2018)

This is the first movie that jumps to mind for me when people ask me about the best indie movies I've seen. It's about an ex-marine with PTSD so severe he can't function in modern society; instead, he and his 13yo daughter live in National Parks. He's homeschooled her (well!) and taught her to be independent and live off the land, and they have a very, very strong relationship. But, she's also 13, and is struggling with the extreme isolation that comes with their lifestyle. She loves her father and doesn't want to abandon him, but it's starting to take a toll on her mental health. And her father loves her, but he's simply incapable of integrating into society in a way that would allow her to have the social relationships she needs. It's moving and heartbreaking and very much a coming-of-age story. Even though the situation at hand is completely alien to my life experience, the core of it is about a father-daughter relationship, and growing up and also losing your father. It came out only two years after my own father died, and on the way home I had to duck into a Mcdonald's bathroom and ugly cry because it jogged something loose in me, which is what finally spurred me to go to grief counselling (which I'd been avoiding for two years).

2. The Five Obstructions (2003)

This one is actually a documentary, but one that I think is worth watching if you're interested in film. The premise is that Lars von Trier has challenged Jørgen Leth to remake his 1970s-era experimental short film, "The Perfect Human", five times - but each time von Trier gives him a set of rules to follow (which, in each case, are designed to "ruin" the picture). Every time Leth comes back with something which has inexplicably been made even better because of the restrictions placed on him. On an academic level, it's fascinating to see how the different techniques change the energy and even the meaning of the film - I'm also personally a huge fan of the use of "creative constraint" in art, so it was especially fascinating to me. On a human level, it's intriguing to watch von Trier try to push Leth to confront less of the "perfect" and more of the "human", and how doing so ultimately elevates the art.

3. A Dog's Breakfast (2007)

This one is maybe the truest indie of all on this list, and the only reason I know it exists is that I've been a long-time fan of its writer + director + producer + star David Hewlett. Hewlett's character (Patrick) is an isolated and somewhat dysfunctional man, who is visited by his sister and discovers that she's engaged. He becomes convinced the fiance is trying to kill her, and decides to try and kill the fiance instead. Patrick's sister Marilyn is played by Hewlett's real-life sister Kate, which personally I think adds something to their whole dynamic. It's a pretty small-scale film - the whole thing takes place at Patrick's house or on his property, and there are only 4 actors, not including Hewlett's real-life dog Mars - and I love what that kind of creative constraint does to a film. Also - it's a comedy (and a riotously funny one, if you enjoy that kind of humour). It's maybe not the deepest or most insightful on this list, but it's a LOT of fun and I've seen it several times.

4. The Invitation (2015)

One of my greatest frustrations in the last year was hearing people talk about The Invitation and getting excited that they were FINALLY discovering this brilliant, underrated indie horror - only to realize they were talking about the shitty vampire movie of the same name. Okay.

The less you know going into The Invitation, the better, so I'll just say it's about a man who goes with his girlfriend to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new husband. It's immensely suspenseful, and it utilizes the kind of social anxiety that would come with this sort of extremely awkward situation to great effect. The main character and the viewer are constantly asking - is there something weird and sinister going on? Or is this just supremely uncomfortable for other, more mundane reasons? It also touches on grief in some brief but meaningful and relatively poignant ways, and has an extremely chilling and effective coda that I am still thinking about to this day (I am forever trying - and failing - to replicate the impact of this movie's final shot in my own writing).

5. Treed Murray (2001)

This is another one that I only know about because I obsessively watched David Hewlett's filmography for a while. Up front, I'll say it's maybe not the most original or insightful social commentary out there, and I also watched it when I had much less awareness of racial issues than I do now, so it’s possible there are the problematic things in the writing I’ve forgotten about. That’s the disclaimer. But it still holds a special place for me because of the premise - a yuppie ad executive gets chased up a tree by a gang of would-be muggers, and the rest of the movie plays out with him stuck in the tree overnight and them waiting for him to come down. The acting all-around is superb, the script is suspenseful (even if the character beats aren't the most unique or original), and I have such a soft spot for any movie that uses a limitation like "this guy is gonna be in a tree the whole time" to its advantage like that, so it's making the list.

6. Nightcrawler (2014)

This is one that's technically indie, but because Jake Gyllenhall is attached it got a lot more attention than another film might have. Gyllenhall is a "nightcrawler" - a video journalist who drives around at night looking for shocking crimes and accidents he can film and sell to news stations for their morning news. It's dark, it's suspenseful - and it's also an incredibly cogent commentary on the news media, how it exploits victims, and how it plays into polarization, division, and marginalization for profit.

7. The Death of Stalin (2017)

Again, this one's technically indie, but Steve Buscemi is in it and it's written and directed by the guy who did Veep, so it got its fair share of attention. But it is one of my all-time favourite movies. It's a satirical look at the leadership of the Soviet Union in the days immediately following Stalin's death; it's bitingly funny, and a lot of humour rests on the sort of bureaucracy that's frustratingly relatable to anyone who's ever worked in an office. At the same time, it manages to touch on the horrors of that period in history in a way that is genuine and respectful, which is a difficult line to walk. Altogether it makes for something that manages to be simultaneously entertaining and somewhat chilling.

8. First Reformed (2018)

This is the one A24 picture I mentioned, but I'm including it in part because it hasn't gotten as much attention as other A24 movies, and in part because it had such a huge impact on me personally. Ethan Hawke plays the pastor of a tiny little tourist church, suffering from depression after losing his son in the Iraq War. A pregnant parishioner comes to him to ask him to speak to her husband, an environmental activist who believes it's wrong to bring children into a world facing climate catastrophe. That encounter shakes the pastor and sends him spiralling as he tries to reconcile the state of the world and the deterioration of the environment with the kind of pat, consumable, shallow, capitalist christianity being pushed by the protestant megachurch which owns his parish.

I will say that part of the reason this film resonated with me so specifically is because I saw it at a point in my life where I was pretty severely depressed, struggling with repressed grief, and really grappling with questions around the faith I'd been raised with, so it spoke to me in a very particular personal way. It might not resonate with other people in quite the same way, but I do think, regardless, it's a well-done exploration of a particular kind of psyche, and so worth a watch.

9. Snowpiercer (2016)

So this one is debatable as an indie; it had a budget of $40 million, it stars Chris Evans, and its worldwide box office was nearly $88 million. Most of that $88 million, though, came from South Korea (where it was initially released) and China; when it came to the US it had a reception and release much more comparable to an indie. So it's a weird one to talk about, because it's "indie" in North America only, and it raises questions as to whether we should be sticking to definitions of "indie" that center on US production companies. If a South Korean studio can make a comparable effort and expenditure, should it not be classified as a major studio?

But. The point of this list is movies I (a North American) recommend to my (largely North American) friends and they simply don't watch because they're "indie movies", and this absolutely fits that bill. And it's especially galling after the (deserved!) success of Parasite. Snowpiercer is also a Bong Joon-Ho film, and while it's not on the same level as Parasite (few things are) it's still excellent. It has all of the suspense, nuance, character work, and adept social commentary of Parasite, but in a dystopian post-apocalyptic setting. After a new ice age brought about by climate change, all of humanity lives on a train constantly circling the globe. The few wealthy live at the front of the train; the many, many poor live at the back. Chris Evans' character leads an insurgency against Wilbur, who runs the train, and the film follows his group of rebels as they move from the back to the front. (I also love this premise because of the physical space limitations which come from having your whole movie set on a train, which the film uses VERY well, especially in its action sequences).

10. Touch of Evil (1958)

So this one is cheating because it's not an indie at all. In fact, the edits made by the major studio it was attached to (Universal) are a big part of why it flopped so hard when it first came out. But I'm taking this opportunity to stump for it as a movie that I love so dearly and no one ever watches because it's black and white and old and Orson Welles directed it and people immediately think of Citizen Kane and think it'll be boring and don't want to touch it. But it is excellent (provided you can get past Charlton Heston in brownface, which is.... hm). It's probably my favourite classic noir (and I have seen many noirs). A car bomb explodes along the US-Mexico border, and Heston, a Mexican drug enforcement agent, has to partner with an American police captain (played by Welles) to investigate - but he quickly starts to suspect that the American captain is planting evidence. The movie itself is dark and gripping and suspenseful, but I also think the key ideas about the ethics of the police and the importance of civil liberties are especially resonant now. It makes the opposite argument of modern "copaganda" that implies that we would all be better off throwing our rights in the trash and letting the cops do whatever they wanted. Instead, Welles is making a case that, actually, personal rights are important and must be held sacred, even if (and especially if) that makes the cops' jobs harder.

#asks #anon #one thing about me is that if you limit the physical space your story takes place in I will absolutely be a sucker for it

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alexzalben · 2 years

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Do you have any info on the Dead Ringers remake at Amazon Prime Video?

Yep! 6 episodes, all will premiere April 21 on Prime Video. Here are some first look images, and more info below:

Rachel Weisz (Disobedience, The Favourite, Black Widow) stars as OBGYN twins Beverly and Elliot Mantle for the highly anticipated psychological thriller Dead Ringers. Weisz also serves as an executive producer. The limited series is created, written, and executive produced by Emmy-nominated writer and playwright Alice Birch (Normal People, Succession, The Wonder). A modern take on David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller starring Jeremy Irons, Dead Ringers will feature Rachel Weisz playing the double-lead roles of Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes—including pushing the boundaries of medical ethics—in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s health care to the forefront. The series’ ensemble cast includes Britne Oldford (The Umbrella Academy, American Horror Story: Asylum) as Genevieve, Poppy Liu (Hacks, Better Call Saul) as Greta, Michael Chernus (Severance, Orange is the New Black) as Tom, Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty, Saint Maud) as Rebecca, and Emily Meade (The Deuce, The Leftovers) as Susan.

Filmmaker Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Nest, The Iron Claw) directed the first two episodes and co-directed the last episode of the series. Durkin also serves as an executive producer. The directing team also includes Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, Girlfight), Karena Evans (P-Valley, Snowfall), and Lauren Wolkstein (A Friend of the Family, Y: The Last Man). Dead Ringers is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Annapurna Television. Alice Birch, who is the series showrunner, serves as an executive producer alongside Rachel Weisz for Astral Projection, Stacy O’Neil, Sue Naegle, and Sean Durkin. Ali Krug is the executive producer for Annapurna Television. Erica Kay, Anne Carey, and Polly Stokes also serve as executive producers. James G. Robinson, David Robinson, and Barbara Wall executive produced for Morgan Creek.

#dead ringers

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richardtrager · 2 years

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Plotted starter for @faerietael’s David Annapurna .

Giving this whole thing the green light had been like pulling fucking teeth, with him, anyways. Sure, there’s a few tree huggers left on the board tickling Murkoff’s balls just enough to whisper sweet nothings about enrichment programs and boosting the social, emotional, and cognitive growth of residents...and that was enough pressure to pull the trigger on the Art Program. It was never a decision he felt comfortable with, watching money dry on canvas. The program’s been up and running for a month or so now so it’s about time he got the invite to see what the damage is. It’s more like a surprise visit, actually.

He invited himself.

Coolly, Trager pushes open the door to the makeshift arts and crafts closet, the fumes of fresh paint hitting him like a ton of bricks. “Wooo! That’ll clear your sinuses.” He announces his presence, sniffing. Bleary eyes turn to gawk in his direction, each of the patients looking either mildly confused or disturbed by his crashing the party. These people are always tough to please. Take take take, you know.

As the executive takes a step inside, shutting the door with his foot, he takes in...the art. These lunatics look like they’re painting themselves more than the paper, truth be told...and those few guys who’ve managed to get a few brush strokes in...-- “Oh!” Richard stops in his tracks, hands in his pockets as he leans over a bald man’s shoulder, taking a look at the only thing in the room that looks like a drawing of some kind. Splattered across the canvas, in shades of purple and stark black, is a ghostly figure. Its missing some distinct features...eyes, a mouth...but it looks like something. It makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“Nice...work.” He finally says, measuring his words a little more carefully than usual. “Loving the slippers too. Balenciaga?” Richard glances down at the man’s feet before moving on, spotting a guy with brain function.

“Hey, I’m Rick Trager from upstairs. R&D. I think I’ve seen you before...don’t tell me...” The executive reaches out, shaking the orderly's hand, eyes rolling back to try and remember the guy’s name. “Daniel?” That seems close. There’s too many people down here.

“I figured, you know what... the sun is shining, the office is cramped, and the art program is on the checklist so I swung by.” Trager smiles, turning to look at the room at large again. “Quite the Kindergarten class you’ve got here. I’d keep an eye on Picasso, personally. Looks like a serial killer. You know those people draw fucked up shit when they’re young, right? The more ya know...”

#faerietael

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iamvoid0 · 2 years

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Silent Hill Returns, The Sims 5 Announced, Razer targets Switch, new Mortal Kombat Game, Microsoft prepares to take on Google & Apple!

A whole week as Microsoft has indicated that they will be taking on Google Play Store and Apple's App store. The Sims 5 gets a new set of screenshots, Mortal Kombat goes Mobile, Razer has Nintendo in its sights, and Konami has a vast array of Silent Hill Projects!

🕹️ The Console War Rages On

Splinter Cell remake loses its director - The first mainline Splinter Cell game in a decade has lost its director. David Grivel, who worked for Ubisoft for eleven years, stated, "it was time for him to go on a new adventure". He has previously worked on Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassin's Creed Unity, and Far Cry 4, 5 and 6. (Source)

PC accessory and computer manufacturer Razer has announced a new handheld gaming system - The announcement came in the form of a YouTube trailer. The system is based on an Android Tablet with a joy-con-like peripheral attached to the sides. It is powered by a Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 with a 144hz AMOLED display. The system is currently in pre-order mode. You will be required to "reserve" a unit. (Source)

The Sims next-generation game has been announced - The Sims "Project Rene" has been revealed. This new iteration of Sims will be cross-platform, which is easy to communicate, share and play across devices, with the game said to offer the same experience across different devices. It was noted that the game is still in very early development. (Source)

DualSense Edge wireless controller has been announced - Sony's answer to Microsoft's Xbox Elite controller. Pre-orders will launch 25th of October, 2022. The package will have multiple hardware and software customizations, with different keycaps, high dome, low dome, half dome caps, and a carrying case. The unit will retail for recommended retail price (RRP) of $199.99 USD/¥29,980 (including tax)/€239.99/£209.99. (Source)

Mortal Kombat Onslaught has been announced - Mortal Kombat Onslaught is a collection-based role-playing game launching in 2023 for the mobile platform. The game is being developed by NetherRealm Studios and will feature a "cinematic story experience". The game sees you collecting fighters and putting together a team in real-time group battles. The game is set for a 2023 release window. (Source)

Digimon World: Next Order for Japanese Switch release in 2023 - The game is set for release on the 22nd of February, 2023. This game is a port of the original game launched for the PS Vita on the 17th of March, 2017. The game will feature a new "beginner" and "run" mode for players. (Source)

Microsoft is working on the Xbox Store - During the CMA's investigation of the 68.7 billion USD acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft, documentation has indicated that Microsoft is working on an Xbox Store for their Xbox Mobile Platform. The acquisition intends to use Activision-Blizzard properties to force users to use the Xbox Store rather than the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. (Source)

Final Fantasy XVI has dropped a new trailer showcasing more of the FFXVI world - The trailer shows off more characters, eikons, and in-game battles. The game is still set for a Summer 2023 release. (Source)

✨ Going to Events Spiritually

Xbox Game Pass gets Persona 5 Royal, Gunfire Reborn, Phantom Abyss, and More.

Konami had their Silent Hill Showcase this week. It features remakes, new games, and a movie.

They announced a remake of Silent Hill 2. The remake will retell the second game's story with some team members from the original studio. The remake is set for the PS5 and is being developed by Bloober Team.

Silent Hill: Townfall is a new spinoff by No Code Studios and publisher Annapurna Interactive. It is said this will be a unique take on the franchise.

Silent Hill f is a new spinoff set in 1960s Japan. The game will be a narrative-driven experience written by the acclaimed Japanese writer, Ryukishi07. Best known for their visual novels like Higurashi.

Silent Hill: Ascension is an interactive project where participants worldwide will control the characters in a new Silent Hill Story. Silent Hill: Ascension is a collaboration between Genvid Entertainment, Bad Robot Games, Behaviour Interactive, and dj2 Entertainment.

Return to Silent Hill, the third movie in the film franchise, will see the return of Christophe Gans, the first movie's director. Konami has promised more information about the project at a later date.

🎮 Where's My Controller?

I picked up Megaman 11 last week since it was on sale, and this has to be one of the best modern Megaman games out there. I am pretty much nearing the end. But this has my renewed interest in more games. Honestly, the mechanics were so simply fluid and smooth. It just felt so fun to jump 'n shoot.

📝I don't know what a pen looks like.

I finally uploaded the video version of my Blue Reflection piece. The video is 16 minutes long, but if you haven't gotten time to read my Blue Reflection piece, check out the video review on YouTube.

I am having a bit of trouble finishing my other articles, but I'll see what I can get done over the next couple of weeks.

💖 Enjoy this newsletter?

Forward to a friend and let them know where they can subscribe (hint: it's here).

#newsletter #nintendo #switch #sony playstation #sony #microsoft #xbox #silent hill #konami #megaman #final fantasy xvi #digimon #the sims #sims #the sims 5

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jcmarchi · 2 months

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Amazon strives to outpace Nvidia with cheaper, faster AI chips

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/amazon-strives-to-outpace-nvidia-with-cheaper-faster-ai-chips/

Amazon strives to outpace Nvidia with cheaper, faster AI chips

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Amazon’s chip lab is churning out a constant stream of innovation in Austin, Texas. A new server design was put through its paces by a group of devoted engineers on July 26th.

During a visit to the facility in Austin, Amazon executive Rami Sinno shed light on the server’s use of Amazon’s AI chips. This development is a bold step toward competing with Nvidia, the current leader in the field.

The main reason Amazon is developing its own processor is this: it doesn’t want to rely on Nvidia and buy the company’s chips. The expensive Nvidia chips power a big part of the AI cloud business at Amazon Web Services. This business is the most significant growth engine of the company. Thus, the so-called “Nvidia tax” was pushing the company to look for a cheaper option.

Amazon’s chip development program has a dual purpose. Firstly, the project is meant to provide customers with more affordable opportunities for complex calculations and large data volume processing. Secondly, the initiative was developed to preserve Amazon’s competitiveness in the volatile cloud computing and AI industry. This move was also supported by the directions of tech giants such as Microsoft and Alphabet, which are developing custom-made chips to maintain their leadership in the market.

Rami Sinno, director of engineering for Amazon’s Annapurna Labs, a key element of the AWS ecosystem, emphasised that customer demand for more economical solutions to Nvidia’s products is growing. The acquisition of Annapurna Labs in 2015 was a savvy move by Amazon as it enabled the company to lay the groundwork to begin developing popular chips.

Although Amazon’s chips for AI are in their early days, the company has been making and refining chips for other mainstream applications for nearly a decade, most notably its general-purpose chip, Graviton, which is now in its fourth generation. Amazon has announced that its Trainium and Inferentia chips, the company’s latest and strongest, are still in their early days and are specially designed processors.

The impact is potentially huge because the impressive performance underscores the reports by David Brown, vice president of compute and networking at AWS. In this light, it should be acknowledged that Amazon’s in-house chips could deliver up to a 40-50% price-performance ratio improvement compared to Nvidia-based solutions. In turn, this potential improvement could mean considerable savings for AWS clientele deploying their AI workloads.

AWS’ significance to Amazon’s overall business cannot be underestimated. In the first quarter of this year, AWS made up a little under a fifth of Amazon’s total revenue, as its sales soared by 17 per cent year over year to reach $25 billion. At the moment, AWS holds about a third of the global cloud computing market, and Microsoft’s Azure covers about a quarter, or 25%.

Amazon’s commitment to its custom chip strategy was demonstrated during the recent Prime Day, a two-day sales event at Amazon.com. To handle the highly elevated level of shopping as well as streaming video, music, and other content, Amazon deployed an impressive 250,000 Graviton chips and 80,000 of its custom AI chips across its platforms. Adobe Analytics announced record Prime Day results of $14.2 billion in sales.

It seems that as Amazon intensifies its work on the development of AI chips, the industry leader, Nvidia, is not going to remain at the same level. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, has presented Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips, which are scheduled for release later in the year. Their performance has increased significantly, and Huang promised that the new chips are twice as powerful for AI model training and five times faster for inference.

Nvidia’s dominant position in the AI chip market is underscored by its impressive client list, which includes tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta. The company’s focus on AI has propelled its market value to a staggering $2 trillion, making it the third most valuable company globally, behind only Microsoft and Apple.

As the AI chip race intensifies, Nvidia is also diversifying its offerings. The company has introduced new software tools to facilitate AI integration across various industries and is developing specialised chips for emerging applications such as in-car chatbots and humanoid robots.

(Image by Gerd Altmann)

See also: Nvidia: World’s most valuable company under French antitrust fire

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

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Tags: ai, Amazon, Nvidia, processors

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