HPC News Bytes 20240617: Controlling AI, Big Tech Invests in Taiwan, A Step for Specialty AI Chips, Alternative Energy for AI Data Centers, Apple Silicon

A happy summer solstice week to you! The HPC-AI ecosystem produced a raft of news and insights over the past week, here’s a rapid (7:59) review: New paper in Science on controlling AI from an all-star lineup of strategists, Big Tech invests in Taiwan, Chip Wars; AI chip landscape, specialty AI chips take a step forward, AI data centers seek new energy sources, Apple silicon in the data center?

Intel-Apple-AMD-Tesla Chip Architect Jim Keller Joins AI Startup Tenstorrent

Jim Keller, one of the leading names in HPC, AI and data center chip architecture, has landed at a Toronto hardware startup developing AI chips after a two-year stint at Intel that ended “for personal reasons,” according to the company, last June. Keller has been named president, chief technology officer and a board member of Tenstorrent, which said in its announcement that Keller “will lead Tenstorrent’s efforts to be the hardware solution needed to address Software 2.0….

Podcast: HPC Market Eyes $44B in 5 Years

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at a new projections from Hyperion Research that has the HPC+AI market growing to $44B, in 5 years. “The industry is hitting on all cylinders, benefiting from the Exascale race, AI coming to the enterprise, and it’s customary slow but always steady growth. The big news continues to be AI fundamentally bringing HPC closer to the mainstream of enterprise computing whether it is on-prem, in a co-location facility, or in a public cloud.”

Podcast: Modernizing the Electric Grid with HPC

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at how Lawrence Livermore National Lab is working to simulate and help modernize the electric grid. They discuss how the ‘new grid’ will need to be two-way, both delivering and accepting electricity. The new grid will also have to communicate with smart homes and other buildings in order to predict demand and adjust real time pricing.

Radio Free HPC looks at New Leadership at HPE

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at HPE’s new CEO, Antonio Neri, a longtime HPE executive who previously served as President of the company. As the number 1 server vendor in the HPC space, this change will be one to watch as we transition to the exascale era in the next five years or so. “This transistion comes at an interesting time for HPE, as one of their main competitors, Dell Technologies, is reportedly looking at an IPO or reverse acquisition by VMware.”

The Festivus Airing of Grievances from Radio Free HPC

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team honors the Festivus tradition of the annual Airing of Grievances. Our random gripes include: the need for a better HPC benchmark suite, the missed opportunity for ARM servers, the skittish battery in the new Macbook Pro, and a lack of an industry standards body for cloud computing.

Radio Free HPC Looks at the Case of the Encrypted iPhone

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at Apple’s fight against a court order to decrypt an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. “The Radio Free HPC is split as to what should happen next, but it seems likely that some kind of compromise will result. Is the government entitled to a back door to all devices? It would seem that no one wants such an important policy to be decided from a single case in California.”