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AMD chips power new Starlink satellites
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AMD chips power new Starlink satellites

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AMD chips now power the latest innovations Star link satellites to provide connectivity from space.

Like The Verge first reportedAMD touted the development during an earnings presentation Wednesday, saying aerospace players including SpaceX are buying AMD’s custom Versal chips.

“Our Versal portfolio is also widely adopted by several aerospace customers,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said during the earnings conference call. “As an example, SpaceX recently launched its latest generation high-throughput satellites powered by Versal AI Core adaptive SoCs.”

The company did not provide further details. But Versal AI Core chips can be customized to meet a customer’s needs to deliver both “breakthrough” AI performance and wireless acceleration, according to to AMD. “The real-time processing unit is ideal for applications (that) require low latency, determinism and real-time control,” the company’s product page adds.

In addition to aerospace companies, AMD says it sells Versal AI Core chips to telecommunications companies for use in 5G networks. This suggests that SpaceX is using Versal AI Core chips to speed up data processing on Starlink satellites, which have recently included radiant cellular data to smartphones on the ground.

During Tuesday’s earnings conference call, AMD’s CEO said the company had also finalized the final design of a next-generation Versal chip, which could also attract customers such as SpaceX.

“To continue this momentum, we recorded “Telluride” last quarter, the first product in our second-generation Versal family that delivers up to 10 times more compute and helps accelerate AI applications on a single chip,” Su said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But it seems the company is also working on its own processors for Starlink equipment in addition to using AMD chips. SpaceX’s work portal has listed several roles for “silicon engineering” for Starlink. “In this role, you will develop cutting-edge, next-generation silicon for deployment in space and ground infrastructure around the world,” one of the positions said. “These chips enable connectivity in places where it was previously not available, affordable or reliable.”