AMD SEC Filing Reveals Instinct MI388X AI Accelerator, A Faster Refresh of CDNA 3?

AMD has listed a mysterious Instinct MI388X AI accelerator in a new SEC filing, depicting that Team Red might have more plans with this lineup.

Tom's Hardware reports that they have spotted the presence of a new unannounced AMD AI accelerator in SEC's latest 10k filing, which is a report filed by a publicly traded company that discloses its financial figures along with the company's ongoing and future activities. Such documents usually reveal the release of unrevealed products. In AMD's case, the firm looks to yet again come up with another AI accelerator, potentially being the fastest of them all.

AMD has explicitly mentioned that the products in the filing are not for export to China due to US regulations, which puts the MI388X as a "Chinese-compliant" variant out of the equation. The filing mentions the existence of AMD's Instinct MI250, MI300X, and MI300A AI GPUs as well, which shows that, for now, their accelerator portfolio is confined to these models only.

In October 2023, BIS [U.S. govt. Bureau of Industry and Security] issued new requirements for certain advanced computing items that apply to the export of products classified ECCN 3A090 or 4A090 to a party headquartered in, or with an ultimate parent headquartered in, any of Country Groups D1, D4 or D5, including China," he statement from AMD reads.

"These controls prevent us from shipping our AMD Instinct MI250, MI300X, MI300A, MI388X integrated circuits and our Versal VC2802, VE2802 FPGAs to China, or to customers outside of the United States whose ultimate parent is headquartered in a D5 country (including China), without a license.

- AMD's 10k regulatory filing via SEC

It's the first time we have seen the Instinct MI388X surface up; hence, we are unaware of the specifications of the accelerator, but if we follow the naming scheme hierarchy, we could expect the MI388X to top off the list. It might be the last attempt by AMD before they transition to the new MI400 series by 2025. AMD has hinted at refreshed MI300 accelerators featuring more HBM capacities and the possibility of using faster HBM3e dies.

Or, it could just be something in the plans, and we might not see it get released, similar to AMD's Instinct MI309 AI GPU, designed for the Chinese markets but didn't see the light due to US regulations.