Intel Snaps Up Nervana to Jump-Start in AI, Deep Learning & Machine Learning

Many of the IT experts suggest that the start-up’s technology will help Intel to catch up in Artificial Intelligence.

Intel has recently acquired California based, deep learning start-up Nervana Systems. The deal is that it helps Intel to make up for the highly competitive ground of Artificial Intelligence. Founded in 2014, Nervana offers a platform for machine learning. It’s optimised from algorithms down to silicon which solves machine learning issues, as mentioned by start-up.

Also of interest to Intel, by using Nervana cloud service to develop software and applications that make use of deep learning. For instance it can be used for tasks like image recognitions and uncovering patterns in huge bunch of data. Additionally, Nervana is also developing a speciality processor, called ASIC which is customised for deep learning.

According to the general manager of Intel’s Data Centre Group, Diane Bryant- Nervana’s IP & expertise to accelerate deep learning algorithms will expand capabilities of Intel in field of Artificial Intelligence.

Diane Bryant further added that they are going to use Nervana’s software expertise to further optimise their Intel Math Kernel Library. She said, the Nervana’s silicon expertise and Engine help Intel to advance its AI portfolio. This enhances their deep learning performance and lower the ownership cost of its Intel Xeon and Xeon Phi processors.

You can also watch this video about Intel Acquires AI Start-up Nervana Systems shared by NewsBeat Social on YouTube.

Intel Lagging: How It’s Good For Intel to Acquire California Based Start-up Nervana

As the company says, the new Nervana Engine chip will be capable of handling huge bunch of data at such a high speed that their competitors can’t match. The incorporation of new technology known as “high bandwidth memory” combines 32 GB of on-chip data storage, providing memory access with speeds of 8 terabits per second.

According to the market research, this seems that Intel doesn’t have much of machine learning business at present. So acquisition Nervana can surely help Intel to catch-up with the competition in the segment.

From Now On Intel, AMD Chips Only Supports Windows 10

Recently, I read an article about latest Intel, AMD processors that now it only supports Windows 10 and the future releases requires latest release of Windows 10. Shad Larsen, Microsoft’s director of Windows business planning has also recently blogged about this last month.

At the recent launch of Kaby Lake and Zen chips, the Intel veep Navin Shenoy announced that Kaby Lake, Summit Ridge (Zen CPUs) and Briston Ridge(Excavator APUs) are all only for Windows 10. Initially, Microsoft was proposed to speed Skylake away from Windows 7/8 as well, but later on they decided to provide support throughout its lifespan until Windows 7 exists support in 2020.

You can also watch this video on youtube where Navin Shenoy Describes Intel’s 7th Gen Intel Core Processor.

Although this transition has also happened earlier when all hardware reaches to a point where it doesn’t supports outdated operating systems. But this event is happening quickly and that’s maybe due to the reason that Windows 7, like Windows XP before it, remained for long in this industry. In addition, Microsoft is actually pushing customers to its new product, Windows 10 by killing support for Windows 7.

Now, What about Linux, BSD, OS X?

Actually, Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Zen-based chips are not locked down to the Windows 10. Don’t worry they’ll boot Linux, BSDs, OS X, home-brew kernels and whatever software supports them. So if you wanna use Linux or any other non-Windows operating system on new processors, you’ll be fine. I have checked it, and it works fine.

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