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.
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.
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Profile Box
Company/date started: 2015
Founder/CEO: Mohammed Toraif
Based: Manama, Bahrain
Sector: Sales, Technology, Conservation
Size: (employees/revenue) 4/ 5,000 downloads
Stage: 1 ($100,000)
Investors: Two first-round investors including, 500 Startups, Fawaz Al Gosaibi Holding (Saudi Arabia)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Essentials
The flights: You can fly from the UAE to Iceland with one stop in Europe with a variety of airlines. Return flights with Emirates from Dubai to Stockholm, then Icelandair to Reykjavik, cost from Dh4,153 return. The whole trip takes 11 hours. British Airways flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Reykjavik, via London, with return flights taking 12 hours and costing from Dh2,490 return, including taxes.
The activities: A half-day Silfra snorkelling trip costs 14,990 Icelandic kronur (Dh544) with Dive.is. Inside the Volcano also takes half a day and costs 42,000 kronur (Dh1,524). The Jokulsarlon small-boat cruise lasts about an hour and costs 9,800 kronur (Dh356). Into the Glacier costs 19,500 kronur (Dh708). It lasts three to four hours.
The tours: It’s often better to book a tailor-made trip through a specialist operator. UK-based Discover the World offers seven nights, self-driving, across the island from £892 (Dh4,505) per person. This includes three nights’ accommodation at Hotel Husafell near Into the Glacier, two nights at Hotel Ranga and two nights at the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. It includes car rental, plus an iPad with itinerary and tourist information pre-loaded onto it, while activities can be booked as optional extras. More information inspiredbyiceland.com
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
