Microsoft demonstrates the world's 'first AI supercomputer,' using programmable hardware in the …

Microsoft demonstrates the world’s ‘first AI supercomputer,’ using programmable hardware in the …

Doug Burger, Microsoft Research’s principal hardware-development engineer on what’s known as “Project Catapult,” showing an FPGA board at Microsoft Ignite today. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota.) Microsoft has quietly installed an esoteric, powerful piece of silicon across its cloud-oriented data centers, and it’s saying the new chips will give its Azure cloud computing platform a strong competitive advantage in the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence. Using the technology, the company demonstrated what it called “the first AI supercomputer” during Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s closing keynote address on the first day of the company’s Ignite technology conference in Atlanta. It’s part of Microsoft’s vision to “democratize” artificial intelligence, Nadella said. He pointed to four pillars: agents, applications, services, and infrastructure, with the new chips being an example of the latter. Doug Burger at Microsoft Ignite. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin…


Link to Full Article: Microsoft demonstrates the world’s ‘first AI supercomputer,’ using programmable hardware in the …