Tesla aims to produce most of the chip technology in-house to avoid supply chain disruptions and trade bottlenecks. AFP
Tesla aims to produce most of the chip technology in-house to avoid supply chain disruptions and trade bottlenecks. AFP
Tesla aims to produce most of the chip technology in-house to avoid supply chain disruptions and trade bottlenecks. AFP
Tesla aims to produce most of the chip technology in-house to avoid supply chain disruptions and trade bottlenecks. AFP

Tesla unveils D1 chip to train AI models and build supercomputer Dojo


Alkesh Sharma
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Electric vehicle maker Tesla unveiled a new computer chip, designed entirely in-house, which will be used in the company’s supercomputer, Dojo.

Unveiled at the company’s online AI Day event on Thursday, the new D1 chip will be used to train artificial intelligence networks in Tesla’s data centres.

The California-based company said it is placing up to 25 D1 chips on to a single training tile and 120 of these tiles will be joined together across various servers. This will make the calculations several times faster than most supercomputers in use today.

“This was entirely designed by the Tesla team internally … all the way from the architecture to the package,” said Ganesh Venkataramanan, senior director of autopilot hardware at Tesla.

“We can do [computations] and data transfers simultaneously … this is a pure machine-learning machine,” said Mr Venkataramanan.

The IBM Q System One quantum computer on display in Las Vegas. Reuters
The IBM Q System One quantum computer on display in Las Vegas. Reuters

Supercomputers are far more powerful than general-purpose computers and are typically used to address the most demanding problems in the world. These include developing models to discover new medicine, fight a pandemic, explore oil and gas reserves, simulate nuclear weapon explosions, forecast weather and research climate issues.

US technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Google are competing to develop improved supercomputer technology. Quantum physicists at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute are building the Middle East’s first quantum supercomputer.


Dojo, which is expected to be operational next year, will not only be part of the technology for Tesla’s full self-driving system that offers more enhanced features such as auto-parking and automatic lane changes.

“This is not intended to be just limited to Tesla cars,” the company's billionaire chief executive Elon Musk said.

“Those of you who’ve seen the full self-driving beta can appreciate the rate at which the Tesla neural net is learning to drive. And this is a particular application of AI, but I think there’s more applications down the road that will make sense,” he said.

Mr Musk described Tesla as a company with “deep AI activity in hardware on the inference level and on the training level” at the company’s AI Day event.

“There’s a tremendous amount of work to make it work and that’s why we need talented people to join and solve the problem,” he said.

Tesla said it aims to produce most of the technology in-house to avoid future supply chain disruptions and trade bottlenecks.

Last year, Tesla unveiled a computer chip produced by South Korean technology company Samsung, but this did not shield the company from the Covid-induced chip shortage.

This month, Mr Musk said the company is facing severe supply chain constraints, with the most problematic being sourcing components from Japan’s Renesas and Germany’s Robert Bosch.

In its earning call last month, Tesla said continued supply constraints will have a “strong influence on the rate of delivery growth” for the rest of this year. The company, which delivered a record 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter, said it had to rewrite the vehicle software to support the alternate chips to minimise the impact of global scarcity.

Tesla also aims to launch a humanoid robot prototype next year, Mr Musk said. The Tesla bot will be designed for risky, repetitive and boring tasks.

About 173 centimetres tall, the robots will be programmed to do various monotonous jobs such as assembling car parts, moving components around factories and picking up groceries.

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If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?

“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett

“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche

“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox

“I think I’d buy a defunct footwear brand; I’d like the challenge of reinterpreting a brand’s history and changing options.” Kris Balerite

 “I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy

“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra

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Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

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What you as a drone operator need to know

A permit and licence is required to fly a drone legally in Dubai.

Sanad Academy is the United Arab Emirate’s first RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft) training and certification specialists endorsed by the Dubai Civil Aviation authority.

It is responsible to train, test and certify drone operators and drones in UAE with DCAA Endorsement.

“We are teaching people how to fly in accordance with the laws of the UAE,” said Ahmad Al Hamadi, a trainer at Sanad.

“We can show how the aircraft work and how they are operated. They are relatively easy to use, but they need responsible pilots.

“Pilots have to be mature. They are given a map of where they can and can’t fly in the UAE and we make these points clear in the lectures we give.

“You cannot fly a drone without registration under any circumstances.”

Larger drones are harder to fly, and have a different response to location control. There are no brakes in the air, so the larger drones have more power.

The Sanad Academy has a designated area to fly off the Al Ain Road near Skydive Dubai to show pilots how to fly responsibly.

“As UAS technology becomes mainstream, it is important to build wider awareness on how to integrate it into commerce and our personal lives,” said Major General Abdulla Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief, Dubai Police.

“Operators must undergo proper training and certification to ensure safety and compliance.

“Dubai’s airspace will undoubtedly experience increased traffic as UAS innovations become commonplace, the Forum allows commercial users to learn of best practice applications to implement UAS safely and legally, while benefitting a whole range of industries.”

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The biog

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Updated: August 22, 2021, 5:24 AM`