• IEEE Journal of Exploratory Solid-State Computational Devices and Circuits - Special Issue on Nonvolatile Memory for Efficient Implementation of Neuromorphic Computing
• National Quantum Initiative - US Congress considering bill promoting enhanced government support for R&D in quantum computing and quantum communication.
• Microsoft Promotes Q# Programming Language for Quantum Computing - Open access software package designed for variety of potential quantum computing platforms.
• IBM Announces Prototype Deep Learning Chip - New advanced CMOS chip designed to accelerate a variety of deep learning algorithms.
• Ultrafast MRAM - IMEC in Belgium demonstrated a new magnetic random access memory based on spin-orbit torque (SOT-MRAM) with a switching speed of 200 picoseconds.
• Probabilistic Computing for AI - Intel is promoting research into incorporating probabilistic computing into real-world AI systems such as autonomous vehicles.
• White House forms AI Panel with Industry Summit - The US Office of Science and Technology Policy sponsored a Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which met recently with US Industry Leaders in the field.
• National Machine Intelligence Strategy - The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies together with Booz-Allen Hamilton presented a new report promoting a strategic plan for application of machine intelligence in government and industry.

Big Changes for Mainstream Chip Architectures

Using AI and non-von-Neumann architectures to continue exponential improvement in system performance

This special report from Semiconductor Engineering presents an overview of innovations in processor and memory architectures from several companies, intended to continue enhanced system performance over the next decade. Some of these innovations were presented at the Hot Chips Symposium held recently in Silicon Valley.

The new focus is not so much on process development, as on redesigning chip architectures and improving chip packaging, in order to optimize performance for particular applications. For example, edge devices will need to pre-process massive amounts of data, rather than sending all of this to the cloud. Furthermore, artificial intelligence built on neural networks will be distributed across processors and memories to enable learning to optimize scheduling and assignment among multiple devices on and off the chips. This will further deviate from the classic separation of logic and memory as in the Von Neumann architecture.

In this way, chip manufacturers anticipate that they will be able to double system performance every two years, even while the classic process-based Moore’s Law enhancements have mostly saturated.

The Future of Computing: A Conversation with John Hennessy

Dr. John Hennessy is a leading computer scientist who was the President of Stanford University and is now the Chairman of Alphabet. In May 2018, Dr. Hennessy presented a keynote talk at the Google I/O developer conference. He spoke about the future of computing in the context of the ending of Moore’s Law and the onset of artificial intelligence. Energy efficiency has become critical, and is limiting the performance of advanced processors. He focused on the need for “domain-specific architectures” and “domain-specific languages” that will enable the design and programming of special-purpose processors optimized for different applications. This differs from the general-purpose processors of earlier generations, and will enable accelerated performance without faster transistors. This will require closer integration of hardware and software with applications throughout the design phase, preferably including consideration of cybersecurity. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) based on neural networks are finally making major impacts on system performance.

Current CMOS technology should be sufficient for the next decade, but other technologies (neuromorphic, quantum) may be needed for further progress.

Watch The Future of Computing video

For other videos from Google I/O 2018, see here

• Rebooting Computing Video Overview
• IEEE Future Directions
• ICRC 2018 Call for Papers
• Computing in Science and Engineering on the End of Moore's Law
• IEEE Journal of Exploratory Solid-State Computational Devices and Circuits (JXCDC)
• Arch2030 Workshop Report
• TTM 2016 Videos
• Workshop on Neuromorphic Computing
• Workshop on Beyond CMOS Technology
• Update on National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI)
• RC White Paper on Nanocomputers
• IEEE Computer Magazine on Rebooting Computing
• RC-ITRS Report on the Foundation of the New Computer Industry Beyond 2020