Artificial intelligence is awakening the chip industry's animal spirits

SUPERCOMPUTERS usually fill entire rooms. But the one on the fifth floor of an office building in the centre of Bristol fits in an average-sized drawer. Its 16 processors punch more than 1,600 teraflops, a measure of computer performance. This puts the machine among the world's 100 fastest, at least when solving certain artificial-intelligence (AI) applications, such as recognising speech and images. The computer's processors, developed by Graphcore, a startup, are tangible proof that AI has made chipmaking exciting again.