Microsoft Bets Future On Reprogrammable Computer Chip

Megalith

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Here is an article about FBGAs, or field-programmable data arrays, which are basically integrated circuits that can be configured post-manufacture. While the author makes them sound like a new concept, they’re really not, but it’s interesting to read about their place with modern services and how they differ from traditional processing units.

FPGAs already underpin Bing, and in the coming weeks, they will drive new search algorithms based on deep neural networks—artificial intelligence modeled on the structure of the human brain—executing this AI several orders of magnitude faster than ordinary chips could. As in, 23 milliseconds instead of four seconds of nothing on your screen. FPGAs also drive Azure, the company’s cloud computing service. And in the coming years, almost every new Microsoft server will include an FPGA. That’s millions of machines across the globe.
 
Hmm, if it's so successful why is Bing still incredibly awful???
 
And in the coming years, almost every new Microsoft server will include an FPGA. That’s millions of machines across the globe.

Oh Microsoft.....

5135FNKta-L.jpg


$1 to manufacture, $1000 to license.
 
Yeah I really have no idea what westrock is talking about, the article is about FPGAs in servers used inside MS.
 
Oh I just assumed that when they says millions of machines I thought they meant future servers running Microsoft server software would also additionally have Microsift specific hardware. But you are saying Microsoft themselves is operating millions of machine around the globe. Sounds like a solid business then if they are operating that many computers.
 
I played around with FPGA simulators in the early 2000s - I couldn't afford to buy a real one because I was in college.

I didn't realize that a large company was adopting them for their server farms. Really neat!
 
That's not saying much...

Bing's algorithm is very similar to how Google's works. The more people who use it the better it will get. Anyhow, in some things like image search Bing trounces Google, especially on abstract things. It has it's place.
 
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