Stolen from AMD is not even close to the “source code of the GPU”

Yesterday it became known that AMD stole intellectual property related to the new GPU. An AMD report on this occasion made it clear that “stolen graphic intellectual property is not the foundation of the competitiveness or security of our graphic products.” Nevertheless, a wave of high-profile headlines swept through thematic sites that AMD had “stolen GPU source codes”.

However, this is far from the truth. Referring to specialists with extensive experience in developing IP and analyzing that part of the stolen files that the hacker published, the source clarified the situation. In short, stolen intellectual property is not even close to representing the “source code” required to design an AMD RDNA GPU or to understand its structure.

In fact, these are some Verilog files commonly used when creating integrated circuits. Published files belong to one isolated function implemented in the GPU. Moreover, this function is not part of the kernel, so it is not of great interest. Moreover, the published files rely on the proprietary development procedure and are compatible only with AMD’s internal design language, that is, they are almost useless for third-party developers. They are unsuitable for design or reverse engineering. And they do not have information that could be used to circumvent any security features of AMD RDNA GPUs.