Tag: Fierce Electronics

HPC pushes quantum computing capabilities forward [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

If you’re placing bets on whether quantum computing or high-performance computing (HPC) will come up on top, the answer is both.

Comparing the two is akin to comparing apples and oranges – each has its own strengths, and these strengths dictate what problems you should throw at them. Even if the best choice is a quantum computer, it’s going to need an HPC to work effectively.

Many algorithms, such as Shor’s algorithm, would take a million years on a supercomputer no matter how advanced it was. Because of its nature, a quantum computer is better suited for cryptography, which is a key driver of government interest – it has the potential to break existing encryption. Other domains that have a keen interest in quantum computing capabilities are chemistry, materials research, and Wall Street to chart finance scenarios.

At the heart of quantum computing hardware is a qubit chip. Qubits are very fragile, and they lose their information very quickly. This loss can occur within microseconds, and that is why a classical HPC is complementary to a quantum system – a traditional supercomputer is required to do the necessary error correction.

Some problems are naturally quantum problems, such as chemistry, and not all problems are one or the other – parts of a difficult application might be farmed out to a quantum computer while others are best solved by a classical supercomputer. A quantum computer can be viewed as an accelerator of an HPC system.

Universities play a key role in helping to develop quantum computing technologies. An interdisciplinary team at UMass Amherst is responsible for designing the infrastructure to support future city-scale quantum networks, one of four core thrust areas overseen by the National Science Foundation’s Center for Quantum Networks.

Both Intel and IBM are collaborating with universities to advance quantum computing. More than 100 institutions are members of the IBM Quantum Network, including Cern, and several have dedicated systems.

Read my full story for Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

The microLED market is still alive after Apple’s exit [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Had Apple opted to exit the microLED market two years earlier, it might have been the death knell of the industry, but a Yole Research analyst who has his pulse on the technology is cautiously optimistic despite the tech giant’s recent pivot.

In an interview with Fierce Electronics, Eric Virey, principal analyst covering displays at Yole, said after investing an estimated $3 billion into microLED development and convincing Osram to spend $1.3 billion of its own money to build a fab so Apple could make its smartwatch, Apple pulled the plug and cancelled the project.

Prior to Apple taking an interest in microLEDs, the technology was barely on anyone’s radar. Apple spent $450 million in 2014 to acquire a startup, which for it wasn’t a lot of money, but for everyone else it was a significant amount of money and put microLEDs on the map.

Read my full story at Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Thwarting counterfeit electronics is tough and requires scale [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Counterfeit electronics are at best an annoyance to consumers and, at worst, a threat to national security.

Whether it’s an outright fake or a gray market device, the prevalence of counterfeit electronics is fueled by demand that’s not being met by the available supply. When there’s a high demand that’s not being fully met, there’s more room for outright counterfeit chips, as well as gray market items, which might be a genuine chip that’s packaged as new when it has in fact been used somewhere else for several years.

Putting gray market chips into systems is like turning back the speedometer of a car to make it appear there’s mileage on it, but it obscures the wear and tear that could have serious implications on the system it’s being used in.

Read my full story at Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

AI is enhancing diverse computer vision technologies [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Autonomous vehicles have been driving advances in vision technology, but vendors are targeting other practical applications because broad adoption of self-driving vehicles appears to be taking longer than expected.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) both have need of improved cameras and sensors for practical use cases, while the trend toward “uncaging robots” for industrial applications such as warehouse fulfillment and manufacturing requires smarter vision technology, which spans 2D cameras to 4D LiDAR.

Layering artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and neural networks onto computer vision technologies further expands the many applications for a wide range of sensors and cameras.

Read my full story at Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Demands from the cloud fuel hard drive innovation [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

The hard drive is dead. Long live the hard drive!

The cost of NAND flash has dropped precipitously in the last decade, and tape still wins in cost per bit, but hard disk drives (HDDs) continue to rule the data center.

The focus has moved from the individual PCs to scaling the data center with purpose-built hard drives that have their own attributes and with more consideration being given to total cost of ownership (TCO). Energy consumption measured by watt per terabyte is also an important attribute as it plays into TCO and trends toward sustainability.

Read my full story for Fierce Electronics.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Smaller LEDs are scaling up for uses such as lighter AR glasses, automotive [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are getting smaller, but the process to make them small isn’t easy – at least not yet.

Not unlike many semiconductor technologies, including emerging memory devices, making LEDs smaller is possible, but not always cost effective. The LEDs found in your average flatscreen TV are a mature technology, but manufacturing microLEDs still has its growing pains.

The potential for microLEDs is broad and goes beyond flat panel televisions and smaller displays for smartphones and automotive – there are some interesting medical applications, too.

Read my full story for Fierce Electronics

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

AI boosts optical connectivity demand [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Cloud computing raised expectations for data speeds, but artificial intelligence (AI) workloads are placing even more pressures on bandwidth to move data faster and reliably.

While protocols like the Compute Express Link (CXL) are helping to optimize where data is stored so it is closer to where it needs to be, connectivity remains crucial to moving it as fast as possible. After a dip in adoption, optical transceiver technology is seeing an uptick to scale AI in the data center by companies like Amazon and Google, while connectivity is getting baked into full-stack systems along with hardware and software.

Read my full story for Fierce Electronics

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.