News recently broke that someone had stolen critical AMD intellectual property relating to their GPUs and had then posted the same up on GitHub. The folks over at WCCFTech reached out to anonymous individuals who had briefly accessed the files to clear up some questions about the scale of the IP theft. This is important because there’s been quite a bit of scaremongering going about indicating that blueprints to manufacture RDNA graphics cards are now out in the wild. This couldn’t be further from the truth. What are the key highlights of the leak, then?
The files that were leaked were written using Verilog and represent just a single GPU function, as opposed to details for the entire GPU. This means that potential IP thieves (with foundries) wouldn’t be able to fab an RDNA clone using the information in the leak. Moreover, the files are built in a way that’s only compatible with AMD’s own design language. what this means is that they’d be of limited use to someone outside the company without access to in-house tools.
One of the predictions outlets made was that the leak could be leveraged by competitors to try and assess the performance of upcoming RDNA parts, in order to build product lineups to match. However, since the leak only showcases a single GPU function, there’s no accurate way of estimating product performance based on the data.
Nevertheless, AMD’s taking the leak very seriously. In a statement, they indicated that they “are working closely with law enforcement officials and other experts as a part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
