News

Semiconductors, or chips, are tiny electronic devices that are integral to America’s economic and national security. These devices power tools as simple as a light switch and as complex as a fighter jet or a smartphone. Semiconductors power our consumer electronics, automobiles, data centers, critical infrastructure, and virtually all military systems. They are also essential building blocks of the technologies that will shape our future, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy.While the United States remains a global leader in semiconductor design and research and d…

Loihi 2 packs 1 million neurons in a chip half the size of its predecessor Many AIs may depend on things called neural networks, but there's very little about them that works in the way human and animal brains do. Intel has been experimenting with computers that think more like a brain does for several years now, racking up some impressive if quirky results with their Loihi neuromorphic chip. Now Loihi is getting its first upgrade, and it's a pretty big one. Using a manufacturing process called Intel 4 that's not yet available for commercial chips, the company packed in up to eight-times as ma…

PEOPLE IN THE TECH WORLD talk of a technology “crossing the chasm" by making the leap from early adopters to the mass market. A case study in chasm crossing is now unfolding in neuromorphic computing. The approach mimics the way neurons are connected and communicate in the human brain, and enthusiasts say neuromorphic chips can run on much less power than traditional CPUs. The problem, though, is proving that neuromorphics can move from research labs to commercial applications. The field's leading researchers spoke frankly about that challenge at the Neuro Inspired Computational Elements Works…

A new chip prototype from IBM Research’s lab in California, long in the making, has the potential to upend how and where AI is used efficiently We’re in the midst of a Cambrian explosion in AI. Over the last decade, AI has gone from theory and small tests to enterprise-scale use cases. But the hardware used to run AI systems, although increasingly powerful, was not designed with today’s AI in mind. As AI systems scale, the costs skyrocket. And Moore’s Law, the theory that the density of circuits in processors would double every two years, has slowed. But new research out of IBM Research’s lab …