Page 11 - EE Times Europe Magazine – November 2023

EE|Times EUROPE 11

CTO INTERVIEWS
Nvidia’s Michael Kagan: Building on AI’s ‘iPhone

Moment’ to Architect Data Processing’s Future

By Pat Brans

ichael Kagan has been CTO of Nvidia since May 2020, when Nvidia plans to acquire us. So 30 years after learning
acquired Mellanox, a company he co-founded in Israel. Mellanox the importance of software, I joined Nvidia,
which makes state-of-the-art vector proces-
brought accelerated networking technologies to the semiconduc- sors, or GPUs [graphics processing units], but
Mtor manufacturer, helping support the notion that the data center also champions the role of software. Nvidia
is a computer and that Nvidia would build the architecture for the data develops software to reveal the performance
and capabilities of Nvidia GPUs on standard
center—everything from silicon and frameworks to software that supports application interfaces. Moreover, Nvidia
efficient execution of applications. develops new APIs for advanced workloads
that are maintained across multiple genera-
Kagan, a 40-year industry veteran, began his career with Intel, where he
tions of silicon. Once software is developed
worked on architectures spanning from the i860 to the Pentium MMX. on Nvidia products, it will run intact for
future generations. Investment in software
carries over forever.

“ Investment in software EETE: When you first started your career,
carries over forever,” did you have any idea that the industry
says Kagan. would evolve the way it did?
Kagan: Computers have always fascinated me.
I was a curious kid fascinated by new technol-
ogy, by this accelerator of human ability to
process data. From a young age, I wanted to
understand how a computer is built and how it
works. The millionfold acceleration of human
capabilities was breathtaking. Steve Jobs once
said that humans are toolmakers: Humans
make tools that amplify our abilities.
I could not imagine the extent to which
computing would change the world. I don’t
think anyone in the early ’80s could fathom
that annual computer sales would reach
30 billion units a few decades later.

EETE: How did you get to Mellanox?
Kagan: 1999 was the culmination of the dot-
com bubble. I was frequently turning down
offers to join various startups. One day, I got
a call from Eyal Waldman, whom I’d worked
with at Intel. He offered me [the opportunity]
to be a Mellanox co-founder. I knew we could
EE TIMES EUROPE: You’ve had quite a CPU that booted Linux on the first silicon and build a great company together based on the
career, starting at Intel in the early outperformed the i486 by a factor of 50× on core values I was raised with: commitment,
1980s. What were your first assignments compute-intensive workloads. Unfortunately, teamwork and excellence. I accepted the offer
there, and how did that work evolve? Intel did not develop software and ecosystem and handed in my resignation to Intel the
Michael Kagan: I started at Intel’s Israel site support, so the CPU was eventually discon- very next day.
in the summer of 1983. My first project was tinued. The i860 experience taught me a
an N3 vector processor that was eventually fundamental lesson: Without software, chips EETE: What were some of the highlights
scrapped. I then relocated to Oregon to work are just expensive sand. of your time at Mellanox?
on the floating-point unit, a foundational My last project at Intel was the Pentium Kagan: The Mellanox journey was a roller
block of the Intel 80387SX math coprocessor. MMX processor, the first mainstream Intel coaster. Our vision was to build a technology
After a year, I returned to Israel and began CPU designed outside the U.S. Shortly after its that enables computing and storage to be a
working on a high-performance vector pro- successful launch, I left Intel to start service, like electrical power. Today, this is
cessor that would be the second generation of Mellanox with eight other founders, most of called the cloud.
the Intel 860 architecture. whom were ex-Intel engineers. At Intel, we learned how to build fast
I was the architect of the i860XP; it was a We had a great run building Mellanox, and computers that were sold as servers and PCs.
great success in silicon design. It was the first the year before Covid, Nvidia announced Making thousands of computers to become an

www.eetimes.eu | NOVEMBER 2023