During this week’s CES 2021, Deloitte Consulting principal Dan Littman led an inquiry into how the 5G rollout fared in 2020, with AT&T Business chief executive Anne Chow and Qualcomm Technologies senior vice president of engineering Alejandro Holcman. “5G is a new-generation wireless technology filled with complexity of technology, ecosystems and government requirements,” said Littman. “And 2020 made everything a little more challenging.” He asked Chow and Holcman to describe how 5G has been challenged and/or accelerated during the year. Continue reading CES: Acceleration of Technology, Adoption in 5G’s First Year

Cerebras Systems and its partner, the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), revealed that its CS-1 system, featuring a single massive chip that features an innovative design, is 10,000+ times faster than a graphics processing unit (GPU). The CS-1, built around Cerebas’ Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) and its 400,000 AI cores, was first announced in November 2019. The partnership between the Energy Department and Cerebras includes deployments with the Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Continue reading The Cerebras CS-1 Chip Is 10,000 Times Faster Than a GPU

At the company’s second virtual tech product reveal, Apple chief executive Tim Cook debuted four iPhone 12 models that are capable of connecting with 5G networks. Prices for the new phones begin at $699 for the least expensive 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Mini up to the $999 iPhone 12 Pro and $1,099 12 Pro Max. Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki made a short movie with the iPhone 12 Pro, which Apple touts is “the first and only device that enables you to capture, edit, watch, and share Dolby Vision video.” Continue reading Apple Touts iPhone 12 Pro as an All-in-One Filmmaking Tool

Data center and colocation provider Equinix is inviting companies to test-drive the NVIDIA DGX A100 system at its International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Los Angeles (the company currently has more than 200 IBX centers in 52 markets). This site is currently the only place in the world where companies can take advantage of the DGX A100 to test drive their AI equipment. According to the Equinix testbed landing page, “The test drive solution brings together industry-leading AI hardware from NVIDIA and NetApp alongside best-in-class software technology from Core Scientific, all directly connected on Platform Equinix.” Continue reading Equinix Invites Companies to Test-Drive AI System at LA IBX

As enterprises infuse their business with the power of AI, many are challenged with how to support experimentation and innovation within an IT platform that is manageable and delivers the right resources and performance from prototype to production. Data scientists want a simple, productive workflow that supports rapid iteration, and IT teams want an enterprise-grade platform that scales cost-effectively. AI Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) brings these worlds together with the simplicity of cloud and the performance of dedicated infrastructure, now available as a robust, cost-effective and scalable managed service. On August 25 at 8:00 am PST, experts from Equinix, NetApp, NVIDIA and Core Scientific will discuss the benefits of AI PaaS offerings for the enterprise. Registration is available online. Continue reading Webinar: Experts Discuss Accelerating AI PaaS for Enterprise

Presenting as part of yesterday’s Equinix/ETC&USC live webinar, Teradici chief executive David Smith noted that his company has 14 years of experience in creating remote workflows. “These technologies are who we are and what we do,” he said. “We are passionate about visualization workflows and graphic-intensive workflows that involve our GPU partners like AMD, Nvidia and others.” Such remote workflows, he said, “add tremendous value,” especially during the coronavirus pandemic, which has heightened the need for them. Continue reading Teradici Enables Remote Studio Workforce for VFX, Broadcast

Two years ago, Apple stated plans to sell Mac computers with its own chips, and now announced it will roll them out in 2021. The company is developing three Mac-specific chips using the 5-nanometer process it will debut this year. The chips, which are expected to be faster than those found in the iPhone and iPad, won’t be able to initially surpass Intel’s performance for Apple’s high-end MacBook Pros, iMacs and Mac Pro. For that reason, Apple will likely first debut a laptop. Apple has used Intel chips since 2005. Continue reading Apple Planning Mac Computers With Own ‘Kalamata’ Chips

The Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), developed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation to provide a neutral forum for open source software developers, announced that its sixth hosted project is Open Shading Language (OSL), originally developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks. OSL, which was honored with an Academy Scientific and Technical Award in 2017, is now the de facto standard shading language for VFX and animation. ASWF also stated that AMD and DockYard have joined as new members. Continue reading ASWF Announces Its Next Project: Open Shading Language

Microsoft is debuting DirectX 12 Ultimate, giving developers access to the hardware features on the Xbox Series X and PC. As its next-gen DirectX gaming APIs for Xbox and Windows, DirectX 12 Ultimate enables several methods for improving performance and visuals and brings together Microsoft’s latest development and hardware features while retaining backward compatibility with older consoles and GPUs. Among the improvements are new capabilities for ray tracing, variable rate shading and sampler feedback. Continue reading Microsoft Reveals DirectX 12 Ultimate For Game Developers

Sony previously stated that the upcoming PlayStation 5 will support 8K resolution gaming and features a custom AMD Ryzen chip and ray tracing. Now, lead systems architect Mark Cerny shared more details about the PS5’s solid-state drive, 3D audio capabilities and backward compatibility. The PS5 processor will support 3D audio and requires no external hardware. PS5 also offers an environmentally friendly feature by allowing players to “suspend gameplay with much lower power consumption than PS4.” Continue reading Sony Reveals More Specifications on Upcoming PlayStation 5

Qualcomm debuted Snapdragon XR2, which the company is dubbing “the world’s first 5G XR platform.” This second generation mixed reality chipset follows the debut of Snapdragon XR1 in May 2018, which provided “the minimum criteria for immersion” in mixed reality and was intended to lower the price of components for XR headsets (it was used in AR glasses such as Google Glass Enterprise). Qualcomm is presenting Snapdragon XR2, however, as more powerful than the Snapdragon 835 that powered the Oculus Quest VR headset. Continue reading Qualcomm Targets 5G, Mixed Reality With Snapdragon XR2

Mobile games are gaining in popularity, and AAA game publishers, Apple, Google, and smartphone OEMs are responding. The space will only grow as chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek enable mid-range smartphones to offer gaming. Asus, Black Shark, Nubia, Razer and others have already launched gaming-centric phones. In this environment, Google — concerned that smartphones will be powerful and predictable enough for Android game developers — may be developing a Game Device Certification program. Continue reading Google May Be Creating Android Game Certification Program

Intel, which is in development on its Loihi “neuromorphic” deep-learning chips, just debuted Pohoiki Beach, code name for a new system comprised of 64 Loihi chips and eight million “neurons.” Loihi’s neuromorphism denotes the fact that it is modeled after the human brain, and Pohoiki Beach is capable of running AI algorithms up to 1,000 faster and 10,000 times more efficiently than the typical CPU. Applications could include everything from autonomous vehicles to electronic robot skin and prosthetic limbs. Continue reading Intel Debuts 64-Chip Neuromorphic System for AI Algorithms

This week, AMD announced a partnership with Cray to build a supercomputer called Frontier, which the two companies predict will become the world’s fastest supercomputer, capable of “exascale” performance when it is released in 2021. All told, they expect Frontier to be capable of 1.5 exaflops, performing somewhere around 50 times faster than the top supercomputers out today, and faster than the currently available top 160 supercomputers combined. Frontier will be built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Continue reading AMD’s New Frontier Will Be World’s Fastest Supercomputer

What if you could restore a film — at 12 million frames per second — in two weeks? That’s a case study that Video Gorillas chief executive Jason Brahms described in detail at the HPA Tech Retreat, capping off how his company has spent the last ten years developing tools enabled by artificial intelligence. In 2007, Brahms, who was with Sony Pictures Imageworks, first met a developer pitching his facial recognition software. “I asked him if he had software that could compare different movie cuts and find differences between them,” he recalled. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: In Pursuit of AI-Powered Film Restoration