NVIDIA’s Latest Tech Innovations
On Thursday, March 18, the San Jose Convention Center was packed with developers from hundreds of the world’s top companies in Silicon Valley, whose combined value surpassed 100 trillion dollars, all waiting to see what NVIDIA would unveil (1). Every year, NVIDIA, a tech company that creates mainly computer parts, holds its annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC). At this event, the CEO Jensen Huang, showed off the company’s latest technological advancements, which, as of recently, have been centered around artificial intelligence. Having just crossed the 2 trillion dollar evaluation from the recent excitement surrounding AI, NVIDIA is eager to continue innovating in this space. The largest item that was revealed was their latest AI computer chip, Blackwell. This processor contains hundreds of billions of transistors which are nano-scale electronic switches that help computers understand information (2). Blackwell will have about 2.5 times the performance of its predecessor, Hopper. To achieve this feat, NVIDIA put in considerable time and money with their partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (3). As Jensen Huang held out two versions of Blackwell on stage, he joked about how each had cost billions to create, which was in fact true. Though this amount seems unnecessarily large for just one chip, it will majorly speed up the development of AI, and as more companies work with NVIDIA to use them, the price will drop considerably. Among the companies eager to enhance their AI with the advantages provided by the chip, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have partnered with NVIDIA and will receive early access to Blackwell (4). Alongside Blackwell, Jensen Huang also notably unveiled Project GR00T, an initiative to create humanoid robots that learn in a home-like environment (4). Even though the upsurge of ChatGPT was just a few years ago, the chatbot already feels refined, and as companies continue to develop, it will be interesting to see just how far AI will go.
Bibliography
- Nvidia GTC 2024 — all the updates as it happened. (2024, March 20). TechRadar. https://www.techradar.com/news/live/nvidia-gtc-2024-all-the-news-and-announcements-as-they-happen
- ScienCentral, mailto:webmaster@sciencentral.com. (2024). Transistorized! Teachers’ Guide Lesson 3. Pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/transistor/teach/teacherguide_html/lesson3.html#:~:text=Transistors%20are%20the%20main%20component,it%20off%20to%20represent%200.
- Jane Lanhee Lee. (2024, March 19). Nvidia’s (NVDA) Blackwell B200 Chip: Why It’s so Powerful, What It Means for AI. Bloomberg.com; Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-19/nvidia-s-nvda-blackwell-b200-chip-why-it-s-so-powerful-what-it-means-for-ai?sref=fCMPRM8X
- EnLume Inc. (2024, March 22). Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2024 was a highly anticipated event that showcased the company’s latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing. Here are the key takeaways from the event: Blackwell Platform: Nvidia unveiled the Blackwell platform, the latest v. Linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/key-takeaways-from-nvidia-gtc-2024-event-enlume-lrsic#:~:text=The%20Nvidia%20GTC%202024%20event%20had%20significant%20implications%20for%20businesses,to%20improved%20productivity%20and%20innovation
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