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Intel unveils its first chips built for AI in the cloud
Intel is no stranger to AI-oriented chips, but now it's turning its attention to those chips that might be thousands of miles away. The tech firm has introduced two new Nervana Neural Network Processors, the NNP-T1000 (below) and NNP-I1000 (above), that are Intel's first ASICs designed explicitly for AI in the cloud. The NNT-T chip is meant for training AIs in a 'balanced' design that can scale from small computer clusters through to supercomputers, while the NNP-I model handles "intense" inference tasks.
Intel buys an AI processing powerhouse
Intel isn't the biggest player in the artificial intelligence world, but it might change that very shortly. The chip giant just bought Nervana, a startup specializing in processor-based "deep learning as a service" through technology like its upcoming Nervana Engine, a dedicated AI hardware accelerator due in early 2017. The Intel crew isn't shy about its intentions. It wants Nervana's expertise to help boost the AI performance of its Xeon and Xeon Phi processors on top of broadening its AI know-how -- it's a fast track to the future.
I zapped my brain's pleasure center with electric headphones
Behind the scenes at Engadget, my nickname is "Mr. Chill" because I'm the most permanently-wound member of the team. That's why I had to meet Nervana, a company promising to use music to send pleasure signals to my brain. The firm, based in Boca Raton, claims to have discovered a way to excite the brain's Vagus nerve by pushing an electric current through the ear canal. When stimulated, this nerve promotes the creation of dopamine — the brain's happy chemical — which should lead to you becoming more relaxed. Naturally, if there was an opportunity to transform myself from "Mr Chill" to Mr Chill, I had to go for it.
