“For all of us in the tech industry, although we’ve had our set of challenges, 2020 was perhaps one of our most productive years,” said Dr. Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, at her CES® 2021 keynote address.

The past year, technology has allowed us to adapt the way we learn, work, live and play, and has accelerated digital transformation.

AMD’s advancements and innovations in high-performance computing have allowed a variety of industries to redefine what is possible. Dr. Su and other AMD partners shared some of the ways AMD computing power have made a difference.

Conducting Infectious Disease Research

Perhaps most relevant to 2020 is AMD’s work in the scientific community, helping researchers learn more about COVID-19 and possible vaccines. The AMD COVID-19 HPC fund donated over 12 petaflops of supercomputing in 2020 to universities and labs conducting infectious disease research.

Designed specifically to compute large amounts of data and help make artificial intelligence-enabled predictions, the AMD platform allows researchers to cut down on calculation time and meet the time-sensitive needs that come with the global pandemic.

Improving the Creative Process in Filmmaking

High-performance computing makes it faster and less expensive to produce amazing movies and TV shows. Dr. Su spoke to Lucasfilms and Industrial Light and Magic Health of Technology Francois Chardavoine about how they use AMD technology to create content.

“The amount of threads and cores that [AMD has] available is unprecedented, and this really helps us deliver the content that we have,” Chardavoine said. “As artists more and more are having to tackle really high-resolution content, high dynamic range, more bit depth, it’s just a lot of data to process.”

With AMD processors, artists can make changes to films and immediately see the results.

“That really changes how you approach the creative process,” Chardavoine said.

Powering Gaming Experiences with the New Ryzen 5000

AMD has a robust history with gaming and esports.

AMD partners, including Lenovo, turn to AMD processors and products to power their solutions for esports — solutions that are in fact recognized by esports enthusiasts.

During the keynote, Dr. Su introduced the AMD Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors, which enable a more immersive gaming experience. The new processor for ultrathin notebooks allows lighter notebooks to still have the computing power typical of larger laptops without the bulk.

Taking Off on the Racetracks

As Formula One competition winning driver Lewis Hamilton explained, the majority of a Formula One car is designed and built in-house with technology and data analytics running, and mass quantities of data must be processed in order to help the teams make the best strategic decisions.

“To get ahead, you need to understand the data,” Hamilton said. “I have over 20 buttons on my steering wheel that have a direct link to how the car behaves. So I’m studying that in the background on computers all the time. Each weekend, there’s a huge amount of [data] download — over 500 gigabytes.”

AMD processors allows the team to quickly process and analyze the data and help drivers get the right setup for the best racetrack experience.

More Than Innovation

Even in weather forecasting, AMD computing power is making a difference. But beyond driving new innovations, AMD and its partners are working toward a larger mission.

“I think we have learned that it’s not only about developing technology, it’s about developing technology that everybody can access, because I think we have an obligation as well to make sure that technology doesn’t help to divide our current societies,” said Enrique Lores, CEO of HP.

“It’s such an opportunity for us to offer technology to help people in all walks of life,” Dr. Su agreed. “When we work together across disciplines, the technology that we build can make a huge impact on people’s lives."