Softbank CEO predicts the Singularity will occur in 2047
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The Singularity, the point at which we see runaway technological growth that result in unfathomable changes to human civilisation, is approaching, and we need to be prepared. In 30 years, the Singularity, the point at which we see runaway technological growth that result in...
MIT’s newest chip could bring speech recognition to every device
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way we use and interact with devices is changing, increasingly we’ll be using our voices to control, interact and manage them. The butt of jokes as little as 10 years ago, automatic speech recognition is now on the verge of becoming people’s chief...
Self healing nano spaceships travelling at a fifth the speed of light help NASA explore the heavens
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many regions of space are still off limits to us because of the extreme distances involved but new self-healing, nano sized spacecraft that can travel at a fifth of the speed of light will help us unlock more mysteries of the universe. Working with...
Intels Nervana chip shows the giant is serious about owning the AI market
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many of the AI breakthroughs over recent years have only been possible because of the exponential increase in the amount of computing power available to support them, now Intel and other chip companies are in an arms race to own the future of AI ...
Carbon nanotube breakthrough promises faster, lower power processors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Carbon nanotube transistors finally out perform their traditional silicon counterparts. The computing industry has long seen carbon nanotube transistors as something of a Holy Grail – promising not just faster performance but also lower power consumption than their silicon based equivalents. And it has long...
Researchers build a path to a 200,000 core chip
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Moore’s Law might have been struggling recently but there’s no stopping universities churning out bigger and bigger chips. Researchers at Princeton University want to give a 32nm 25 core open source processor called “Piton” some serious bite and they have in mind a 200,000-core computer...
ARM, Google and Qualcomm team up to challenge Intel in the data center
Intels dominance of the data center chip market is keeping Google execs awake at night, now they’re reaching for the night nurse Intel’s crown jewel these days is in the data center. It’s one of its fastest growing and most profitable divisions for the Santa Clara based chip maker. In 2015, its data...
The death and rebirth of Moore’s Law
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Moore’s Law redefines itself for the next decade of computing. Early in 2016 the worldwide semiconductor industry acknowledged what has become increasingly obvious to everyone involved: Moore’s law, the principle that has powered the information technology revolution since the 1960s, is nearing its end....
Google is making its own custom AI chips
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many of the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have only been made possible because companies now have access to previously unimaginable amounts of computing power, but now there is an arms race to create the “best” AI infrastructure stack. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced today...
