Fiona Jackson is a freelance writer and editor primarily covering science and technology. She has worked as a reporter on the science desk at MailOnline, and also covered enterprise tech news for TechRepublic, eWEEK, and TechHQ. Fiona cut her teeth writing human interest stories for global news outlets at the press agency SWNS.
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Particle Physics Science history: Richard Feynman gives a fun little lecture — and dreams up an entirely new field of physics — Dec. 29, 1959This new DNA storage system can fit 10 billion songs in a liter of liquid — but challenges remain for the unusual storage format'Putting the servers in orbit is a stupid idea': Could data centers in space help avoid an AI energy crisis? Experts are torn.'Intelligence comes at a price, and for many species, the benefits just aren't worth it': A neuroscientist's take on how human intellect evolved Scientists from the U.S. and Japan have used a new type of component in artificial intelligence chips that uses less energy when performing advanced computations. The new system lets more operations run in parallel, allowing the chip to arrive at the best output more efficiently. The majority of computers rely on bits — the 0s and 1s that represent digital information and that programs use to carry out instructions — but some specialised technologies, such as P-bits can randomly switch between 0 and 1, allowing systems to explore many possible combinations of 0s and 1s before settling on the most likely or useful outcome. This kind of inference and decision-making is known as probabilistic computing.China solves 'century-old problem' with new analog chip that is 1,000 times faster than high-end Nvidia GPUs Scientists say they've eliminated a major AI bottleneck — now they can process calculations 'at the speed of light' While the randomness of p-bits is useful, developers still need to control how often they produce a 0 or a 1 so they can guide their system toward better answers. Most p-bits are therefore built with digital-to-analog converters , which use analog voltages to bias them one way or the other. But these are bulky and use up a lot of power.."So, we discovered a digital method to adjust the behavior of p-bits without needing the typically used big, clunky analog circuits." Instead of DACs, the scientists built their p-bits using magnetic tunnel junctions — tiny devices that naturally switch between 0 and 1 at random — and feed this stream of bits into a local digital circuit. Depending on how long the circuit waits to combine these random 0s and 1s, and how it counts and weighs each one, the final output p-bits can become either mostly 0s or mostly 1s.in San Francisco. The work was conducted in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company , the world's largest semiconductor foundry.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors The circuit’s settings can be adjusted by a user or program, allowing control over how strongly the p-bit favors one value. Crucially, because this control is entirely digital, it requires much less space and power on the chip than conventional DACs.Self-organizing behaviour adds to efficiency Another benefit of the new approach is that the p-bits can demonstrate"self-organizing" behaviour, the scientists said. With DACs, when a user specifies a preference for mostly 1s or 0s, an analog signal continuously biases the p-bits. They all feel this push at the same time, creating the risk that they all produce an output simultaneously. Ideally, p-bit outputs would be produced in a staggered manner, so they have the chance to read the outputs of previous p-bits, and use that information to decide whether switching to 0 or 1 will be more useful for the overall computation. With the new system, when the user adjusts the settings for the desired bias, a digital signal is sent to each p-bit’s local control circuit. Because every circuit generates its subsequent output using its own unique timing, the p-bits naturally avoid updating at the same moment. The staggered outputs also allow multiple p-bits to work in parallel and explore multiple possible solutions at once, enabling the chips to carry out computations more efficiently.So far, the expense of using DACs has prevented p-bits from being mass-produced and used in commercial AI hardware, but this breakthrough could change that, the scientists believe. The efficiency benefits may help to reduce the The team behind the MTJ-based p-bits has not yet published performance benchmarks compared to conventional DAC designs, meaning it's uncertain how feasible commercialization is at this stage. Thermal stability and reliability while controlling switching current are. Nevertheless, the team is optimistic that their energetic breakthrough will make probabilistic computing more accessible in other fields, including solving routing problems in logistics and quickly exploring vast numbers of solutions in scientific discovery.Fiona Jackson is a freelance writer and editor primarily covering science and technology. She has worked as a reporter on the science desk at MailOnline, and also covered enterprise tech news for TechRepublic, eWEEK, and TechHQ. Fiona cut her teeth writing human interest stories for global news outlets at the press agency SWNS. She has a Master's degree in Chemistry, an NCTJ Diploma and a cocker spaniel named Sully, who she lives with in Bristol, UK.This new DNA storage system can fit 10 billion songs in a liter of liquid — but challenges remain for the unusual storage format Record-breaking feat means information lasts 15 times longer in new kind of quantum processor than those used by Google and IBM New 'DNA cassette tape' can store up to 1.5 million times more data than a smartphone — and the data can last 20,000 years if frozen
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