NVIDIA’s CUTLASS, ONNX 1.0, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chip, Ethereum interface Status, and new machine learning changes in Google Sheets in today’s top stories around machine learning, AI and data science news.
Announcing CUTLASS for fast linear algebra in CUDA C++
NVIDIA’s CUTLASS to help develop new algorithms in CUDA C++ using high-performance GEMM constructs as building blocks
NVIDIA has released CUTLASS: CUDA Templates for Linear Algebra Subroutines. It’s a collection of CUDA C++ templates and abstractions for implementing high-performance GEMM computations at all levels and scales within CUDA kernels. Unlike other templated GPU libraries for dense linear algebra, the purpose of CUTLASS is to decompose the “moving parts” of GEMM into fundamental components abstracted by C++ template classes, allowing programmers to easily customize and specialize them within their own CUDA kernels. “Our CUTLASS primitives include extensive support for mixed-precision computations, providing specialized data-movement and multiply-accumulate abstractions for handling 8-bit integer, half-precision floating point (FP16), single-precision floating point (FP32), and double-precision floating point (FP64) types,” NVIDIA said in its statement. “One of the most exciting features of CUTLASS is an implementation of matrix multiplication that runs on the new Tensor Cores in the Volta architecture using the WMMA API. Tesla V100’s Tensor Cores are programmable matrix-multiply-and-accumulate units that can deliver up to 125 Tensor TFLOP/s with high efficiency.” NVIDIA is releasing the CUTLASS source code on GitHub as an initial exposition of CUDA GEMM techniques that will evolve into a template library API.
ONNX is production ready
Announcing ONNX 1.0
Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), a joint initiative from Facebook and Microsoft later joined by Amazon Web Services, has reached the production milestone of verson 1.0. ONNX 1.0 enables users to move deep learning models between frameworks, making it easier to put them into production. For example, developers can build sophisticated computer vision models using frameworks such as PyTorch and run them for inference using Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit or Apache MXNet. Since the initial release of ONNX in September, numerous hardware partners including Qualcomm, Huawei, and Intel have announced support of the ONNX format for their hardware platforms, making it easier for users to run models on different hardware platforms.
Qualcomm’s new flagship chip Snapdragon 845
Qualcomm’s next generation processor Snapdragon 845 focuses on AI, augmented and virtual reality
At their annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm announced updates about their latest premium processor due out next year: Snapdragon 845. Though the processor will be built on the same 10 nm processor technology like the 835 (the previous processor), Qualcomm has made some changes in the architecture to embrace next-generation AR and VR applications. In addition to more focus on imaging and AI, it will have a robust battery life. Snapdragon 845 will still support Gigabit LTE speeds via X20 modem. It will feature four Cortex A75 and four Cortex A53 cores as processing module. In the Summit, Xiaomi also made an appearance to announce that their upcoming flagship phone will come equipped with the Snapdragon 845 processor. Whereas the chip will be found in other non-Android devices as well, including Windows 10 PCs. Spectra 280 ISP and Adreno 630 are the new features added to improve photography and video capture, in addition to SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) for obstacle collision. Qualcomm also said that the new chip will have a 3x performance boost in AI. The company has added support for TensorFlow Lite and ONNX frameworks, apart from the regular old TensorFlow and Caffe.
Google spreadsheet getting ‘smarter’
Google rolls out new machine learning features into its spreadsheet software to save time, get ‘intuitive’ answers
Google said it is enhancing the “Explore” feature in Sheets with new capabilities including formula suggestions and pivot tables powered by machine learning to deliver faster and more useful insights. Sheets is part of Google’s productivity suite, meant to rival Microsoft Corp.’s popular Excel spreadsheet software. At present, users typically type quick formulas such as =SUM or =AVERAGE into sheets to get answers for their data. But now Google wants to introduce machine intelligence into the process, so that when users begin typing a formula, Sheets will pop up a few suggestions for full formulas based on the context of the data in the specific spreadsheet. Next, creating pivot tables has always been tricky and time-consuming. So now, Sheets can ‘intelligently’ suggest pivot tables to find the answers. And users can ask questions using everyday language. For example, they can type “what is the sum of revenue by salesperson?” and Sheets will suggest the best pivot table to find the answer to that question. Additional new features in Sheets include a new user interface for pivot tables, along with customizable headings for rows and columns, and also some new ways to view data. “Now, when you create a pivot table, you can ‘show values as a % of totals’ to see summarized values as a fraction of grand totals,” Google said. “Once you have a table, you can right-click on a cell to ‘view details’ or even combine pivot table groups to aggregate data the way you need it.” Google also added the ability to create “waterfall charts,” which provide a way to visualize sequential changes in data. User can now also quickly import or paste “fixed-width formatted data files” to Sheets. The new updates will be implemented in coming weeks.
A new entrant to Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
Status, the first-ever Mobile Ethereum OS, joins the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
Status, the Ethereum blockchain-based decentralized browser with built-in chat and wallet functionality, has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world’s largest open-source blockchain initiative. With membership across the Fortune 500, enterprises, startups, research facilities and even Governments, the EEA’s mission is to enhance the privacy, security, and scalability of Ethereum-based blockchain technologies. Status recently closed a $100 million funding round through the sale of its SNT tokens. Currently in development, it is an open source mobile platform that serves as a gateway to decentralized apps (DApps) and services built on Ethereum. The base offering enables access to encrypted messages, smart contracts, digital currency and more.