'Miracle' computer chip gives big boost to artificial intelligence

Computer chip giant Nvidia has developed a "miracle" chip that is expected to significantly accelerate breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research. Nvidia's Tesla P100 chip crams in 15 billion transistors within its 610-square-millimeter frame, around three-times more than most processors or graphics chips on the market. According to the company's CEO, this makes the Tesla P100 the largest computer chip ever made. "Three years ago, we dedicated ourselves on the single greatest endeavour in the history of our company," Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said at the GPU Technology Conference earlier this month. "We decided to be all in on AI. For the first time, we would design [a chip] that is dedicated to this field of work. Dedicated to accelerating AI; dedicated to accelerating deep learning. "I think we are going to realize looking back that one of the biggest things that ever happened is AI." The Tesla P100 is the product of around 2.5 billion worth of research and development at the hands of thousands of computer engineers. The Tesla P100 chip contains more than 15 billion transistors and is described by Nvidia's CEO as "a beast of a machine." "The odds of this working at all is approximately zero," said Huang. "We are changing so many things in one project.