The 5-nanometer process node is getting closer to volume production, with TSMC providing certifications for its N5 process to major EDA and IP vendors – such as Ansys, Cadence, Mentor, Synopsys and Moortec. In the meantime, there is no shortage of news from all fronts, ranging from futuristic computers to transformer’s coils.
Google’s paper on quantum computing
As widely reported by many media outlets, Financial Times’ journalists have managed to read a paper – briefly posted on a Nasa website and then removed – where Google’s researchers claim that their quantum computer was able to perform a calculation in approximately three minutes that would take today’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years. According to the Financial Times, the paper hailed this achievement as “an experimental realization of quantum supremacy on a computational task” and “the advent of a much-anticipated computing paradigm.” Due to the removal of the paper, and the lack of comments from Google, the mystery continues.
Alibaba’s AI chip speeds up e-commerce
It was not if, but when: Alibaba, too, has announced its own AI inference chip. Named Hanguang 800, it reaches a peak performance of 78,563 IPS, with an efficiency of 500 IPS/W in the Resnet-50 inference test. It is currently used internally by Alibaba, for tasks such as product search and automatic translation on e-commerce sites, personalized recommendations, advertising, and intelligent customer services. Thanks to this chip, for example, Alibaba has been able to cut the time required for categorizing one billion products from one hour to five minutes. The AI chip was developed by Alibaba’s research unit, T-Head – whose Chinese name is Pintouge. Earlier this year, T-Head debuted XuanTie 910, a RISC-V-based IoT processor.
Alibaba’s Jeff Zhang unveils the AI chip. Image credit: Alibaba
