Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2024
From insideHPC
Synopsys Announces Ultra Ethernet and UALink IP Solutions to Connect AI Accelerator Clusters
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 11, 2024 — Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced the industry’s first Ultra Ethernet IP and UALink IP solutions, including controllers, PHYs, and verification IP, to meet the demand for standards…
From insideHPC
Rapidus Collaborates with Cadence on 2nm Semiconductor Solutions for HPC-AI
TOKYO, SEMICON Japan, Dec. 10, 2024—Rapidus Corporation, a manufacturer of advanced logic semiconductors, today announced a collaboration with Cadence Design Systems, Inc. to provide co-optimized AI-driven reference design flows…
From insideHPC
Rapidus Collaborates with Synopsys on Semiconductor Design
TOKYO, SEMICON Japan, Dec. 10, 2024 – Rapidus Corporation, a manufacturer of advanced logic semiconductors, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Synopsys Inc., a provider of silicon to systems design solutions…
From insideHPC
Optical Interconnect: Ayar Labs Secures Investments from AMD, Intel Capital, NVIDIA in $155 Round
SAN JOSE – Dec. 11, 2024 – Ayar Labs, an optical interconnect company for large-scale AI workloads, today announced it has secured $155 million in financing led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital. This brings…
From Computational Complexity
It's Time to Stop Using Grades
We use grades to evaluate students and motivate them to learn. That works as long as grades remain a reasonably good measure of how well the student understands the material in a class. But Goodhart's law, "When a measure becomes…
From ACM-W supporting, celebrating and advocating for Women in Computing
In Memory of Barbora Buhnova
With deep sadness, we announce the passing of Barbora Buhnova, a valued member of our community. Her contributions to advancing women in computing have inspired us all, and her dedication will always be remembered. Bara Buhnova…
From Schneier on Security
Jailbreaking LLM-Controlled Robots
Surprising no one, it’s easy to trick an LLM-controlled robot into ignoring its safety instructions.
From insideHPC
Memory: CEA-Leti Demonstrates Embedded FeRAM Platform Compatible with 22nm FD-SOI Node
SAN FRANCISCO – Dec. 10, 2024 – CEA-Leti research engineers in France have demonstrated for the first time a scalable hafnia-zirconia-based ferroelectric capacitor platform integrated into the back-end-of-line (BEOL) at the 22nm…
From insideHPC
Hammerspace and Supermicro in Data Center and Hybrid Cloud Storage Collaboration
SAN MATEO, Calif. – Dec. 10, 2024 – Data management and storage company Hammerspace today announced a collaboration with Supermicro to deliver a unified data platform for enterprise data centers and hybrid cloud storage. This…
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
From a handful of sand to a fistful of dollars – where computer chips come from
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Sitting at the heart of your computer, mobile phone or DVD player is the microprocessor that makes it all work. These electronic ‘chips’ have millions of tiny electronic circuits…
From Schneier on Security
Full-Face Masks to Frustrate Identification
This is going to be interesting.
It’s a video of someone trying on a variety of printed full-face masks. They won’t fool anyone for long, but will survive casual scrutiny. And they’re cheap and easy to swap.
From insideHPC
Lambda Launches Grant for AI Researchers, Expands Research Program
SAN JOSE, Dec. 9, 2024 — AI developer cloud Lambda today announced a research grant to power AI researchers’ most GPU-dependent workloads. Applications for the grant are now open and will be accepted on a rolling basis. AI researchers…
From insideHPC
HPC Helps Researchers Boost Tree Growth and Photosynthesis
A team of scientists at two Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers have identified a gene in a poplar tree that enhances photosynthesis and can boost tree height by about 30 percent in the field and by as much as 200…
From insideHPC
Dell Shipping Blackwell-Powered Server Racks as Part of Relationship with CoreWeave for AI at Scale
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) announced the expansion of its relationship with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave and reported that it is shipping Dell PowerEdge XE9712 server racks with NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, which Dell said is an industry…
From Schneier on Security
Trust Issues in AI
For a technology that seems startling in its modernity, AI sure has a long history. Google Translate, OpenAI chatbots, and Meta AI image generators are built on decades of advancements in linguistics, signal processing, statistics…
From Computational Complexity
My comments on Lance's Favorite Theorems
In Lance's last post (see here) he listed his favorite theorems from 1965 to 2024.
There are roughly 60 Theorems. I mostly agree with his choices and omissions. I will point out where I don't.
I could make a comment on every single…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Data structures as jigs for programmers (Go edition)
A data structure in programming is a specific way of organizing and storing data in a computer so that it can be accessed and used efficiently. In woodworking or metalworking, a jig holds a piece of work and guides the toolsContinue…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Safe Quick Undercarriage Immobilization Device
Fifteen years ago I blogged about a different SQUID. Here’s an update:
Fleeing drivers are a common problem for law enforcement. They just won’t stop unless persuaded—persuaded by bullets, barriers, spikes, or snares. Each option…From insideHPC
At SC24: Intel, oneAPI and the UXL Foundation — Enabling Open Source Software for HPC-AI
HPC-AI chip companies have built out and manage major major software development operations, and at SC24, we caught up with two software managers associated with Intel's open source software projects. Here is our conversation…
From insideHPC
AVK and Rolls-Royce Report Green-Powered Data Center Generator Sales
London, 5th December 2024 — AVK, a UK supplier of power solutions for data centers in Europe, and the business division Power Systems of Rolls-Royce have announced a record-breaking year of sales for hydrotreated vegetable oil…
From Schneier on Security
Detecting Pegasus Infections
This tool seems to do a pretty good job.
The company’s Mobile Threat Hunting feature uses a combination of malware signature-based detection, heuristics, and machine learning to look for anomalies in iOS and Android device activity…From insideHPC
Quantum: CDP Venture Capital Invests in Multiverse Series A
Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain,December 5, 2024 —Multiverse Computing, a quantum and quantum-inspired AI software company, announced an investment from the largest Italian investor in venture capital CDP Venture Capital Sgr, as…
From insideHPC
QCT Leverages NVIDIA AI Enterprise Software Platform to Enhance AI Powerhouses
When we last took a close look at QCT (Quanta Cloud Technology), the data center, hyperscale and cloud server maker based in Taiwan, we pointed out that the company is a bigger player in the server industry than might be thought…
From insideHPC
QCT Releases New Platform Powered by NVIDIA GPUs for GenAI at Scale
QCT, the global data center solution provider with an expanding presence in the world of HPC-AI servers, is releasing a new hardware platform powered by NVIDIA GPUs and enhanced by the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software.
The post…
From insideHPC
PCI-SIG Reaches 1000 Member Companies Worldwide
BEAVERTON, Ore. – December 5, 2024 – PCI-SIG, responsible for the PCI Express standard, today announced that it has reached 1,000 member companies. PCIe technology was first introduced in 2003 and is a key I/O interconnect for…
From insideHPC
Registration Opens for Energy HPC Conference at Rice Univ. Feb. 25-27
Dec. 4, 2024 — Registration is now open for the Energy High Performance Computing Conference at Rice University’s Ken Kennedy Institute in House, Tuesday-Thursday, Feb. 25-27. Registration is here. For the past 18 years, the
…
From Computational Complexity
Favorite Theorems: The Complete List
Now in one place all of my sixty favorite theorems from the six decades of computational complexity (1965-2024).
From Schneier on Security
AI and the 2024 Elections
It’s been the biggest year for elections in human history: 2024 is a “super-cycle” year in which 3.7 billion eligible voters in 72 countries had the chance to go the polls. These are also the first AI elections, where many feared…
From insideHPC
At SC24: Hammerspace on Making Data Accessible, Globally Shared and Silo-Free
At SC24, we caught up with Floyd Christofferson, Vice President of Product Marketing at data management platform vendor Hammerspace, a company at the headwaters of making data an instantly accessible and globally shared resource…
From insideHPC
MLCommons Launches LLM Safety Benchmark
Dec. 4, 2024 — MLCommons today released AILuminate, a safety test for large language models. The v1.0 benchmark – which provides a series of safety grades for the most widely-used LLMs – is the first AI safety benchmark designed…