Quantum computing is back in the news – this time courtesy of a research team that has published a blueprint for what they are calling “the most powerful computer on Earth.” According to the press release issued on Wednesday, a quantum computer based on this blueprint can be built with currently available technologies and would have nearly unlimited computational power.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has begun operation of Cheyenne, a 5.34-petaflop supercomputer that will support a range of research related to weather, climate, and other Earth sciences. The system is currently ranked as the 20th most powerful system in the world, with a Linpack mark of 4.79 petaflops.
IBM has added TensorFlow, a machine learning software library developed by Google, to its PowerAI distribution. The move is aimed to expand the options for customers interested in enterprise-ready machine learning systems that IBM is targeting with its Power/NVIDIA GPU server gear.
D-Wave Systems has released 2000Q, its latest quantum computer intended to expand the scope of problems that can be run on qubit-based machinery. In conjunction with the general availability of the 2000Q, D-Wave also announced the first customer: Temporal Defense Systems Inc., a cyber security firm.
As Donald Trump takes the reins of power, his administration is outlining a plan that would entail significant cuts in US federal spending. One of the agencies targeted is the Department of Energy, which, if the report is true, could have its scientific research and computing budget sliced in half.
The Mont-Blanc Project has selected Cavium’s ThunderX2 ARM processor to power its next prototype for exascale computing. The system will be constructed by Bull (Atos), leveraging the supercomputer maker’s “exascale-ready” sequana architecture, as well as the high-performance features of the ThunderX2 SoC product.
At the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh this week, an artificial intelligence program will challenge four professional poker players to determine if a machine can beat humans at the most popular gambling card game in the world. The program, known as Libratus, was developed by AI researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) using the newly upgraded Bridges supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC).
Radeon GPUs based on AMD’s next-generation “Vega” architecture will soon be shipping. The chipmaker unveiled some of the details of the new graphics processor in an announcement on January 5.
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