Cerebras brings CS-2 system to data analysis biz nference

AI chip startup Cerebras Systems has deployed one of its CS-2 systems at a well-funded startup that uses natural language processing to analyze massive amounts of biomedical data. As announced on Monday, nference plans to use this CS-2 to train large transformer models that are designed to process information from piles of unstructured medical data to provide fresh insights to doctors and improve patient recovery and treatment. The CS-2 is powered by Cerebras' second-generation, Wafer-Scale Engine processor, so-called because the chip is wafer-size. Cerebras said this deployment marks another significant customer win in the health care and life sciences space after installing similar systems at pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca as well as the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory for COVID-19-related research. Andrew Feldman, CEO of Cerebras, told The Register this installation at Massachusetts-based nference is another testament to Cerebras' belief that its wafer-sized AI chips are better suited than traditional chips like Nvidia's GPUs for analyzing large amounts of data as fast as possible, which is increasingly important in areas like health care and the life sciences.